


The Promise

by mta797



Series: They Are More Than Just Partners And Friends,  They Are Family Forever [1]
Category: The Streets of San Francisco
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-25 16:33:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 43,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22499131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mta797/pseuds/mta797
Summary: He had promised to love her, to cherish her, to keep her safe. It was a promise that would change lives forever.
Series: They Are More Than Just Partners And Friends,  They Are Family Forever [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618756
Kudos: 1





	The Promise

**Chapter 1**

* * *

_**'Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a teardrop.'**_ – Anon

xxxxxx

He was going to spare no expense. Being a cop didn't pay the greatest, but she was worth every penny he had and then some. He also didn't want this gorgeous woman walking around wearing something that looked like it came from a box of Cracker Jack. She would be wearing this ring for the rest of her life, and it just wouldn't look good if it had a green ring underneath it.

Lieutenant Michael Stone pulled the car to the curb in front of a jewellery store where he had once dropped a small fortune on a simple gold band for Helen many years before. He was unable to stop his grin as he watched his partner through the store's window, he wondered just how many rings Steve had seen and rejected. When Steve had dropped the news on him, he had reservations. He had no doubts that Steve would be good to her but seeing his partner as a married man just seemed unsettling. Could this playboy really settle down? With this girl at his side, he could. She was strong-willed enough to not put up with his wandering eye.

He had been sworn to absolute secrecy; this night's surprise had been weeks in the planning. He had never seen Steve so anxious before. The restaurant had been booked weeks in advance, and the hunt for the perfect ring had taken them to almost every jewellery store in the Bay area - until today. Just as he was beginning to think all of Steve's meticulously laid plans were just about to fall apart, the young man finally found the ring he had been searching for. After agreeing to an instalment plan, he could afford, Steve walked out of the store and got back in the car. Opening the box, he flashed the shiny princess-cut diamond ring at Mike.

The light from the late day setting sun hit in just right, sending sparkles into the older man's eyes. "Impressive, Buddy Boy. If that doesn't get you a yes, nothing will."

Steve smiled. "Thanks." He sighed a contented sigh. "A perfect symbol for the perfect woman. God, Mike, I can't wait to marry her." Mike chuckled at his partner's enthusiasm. "I know you were a little worried at first...thinking I'd hurt her or something, but this is the one. No doubts. I've known it since day one. Just wish I would have made my move a long time ago."

"Well Smiley, we had better get you home so you can get ready." Mike grinned as he started the car and pulled out into the afternoon traffic, before casting a quick glance at his partner. "What time did you say your reservation was?"

"Eight." Steve answered distractedly as he took one last looked at the ring before he carefully placed it in his pocket and glanced at his watch. "Damn, it's almost seven."

xxxxx

Excitedly holding her hand out in front of her, Jeannie stared at the diamond ring that now adorned her finger. She still had to pinch herself to make sure that she was not just dreaming, that what happened last night was real and not just a dream. The night had been perfect, starting with a candle lit dinner before he had got on one knee in front of everyone in the restaurant and had asked her to marry him. She did not even have to think about the answer to his question before saying yes. The elation she felt was still holding strong. She felt like she was floating on a cloud and nothing anyone could do or say would knock her back down to earth. She had wanted to wake up the whole world and tell them her news but decided that she could wait until this morning to spread her joy.

She reran the night in her mind as she got up and got ready for the day. She grinned like a schoolgirl as she showered and did her hair. She giggled as she poured some coffee. How she was ever going to tell her best friend the news without shouting it through the rooftops she didn't know.

There was only one thing crashing her party. How was she going to tell her father? It wouldn't be easy, especially after all his years of "no dating cops." Chewing her lip, she wondered just how he was going to react when she told him she was going to marry one, not just any cop but a certain cop that he knew well.

Looking down at her watch, she noticed that is was getting close to ten. She was to meet her best friend at 10:30. Grabbing her purse from the living room, she bolted out the door.

XXXXXX

"So how did it go last night, Buddy boy?" Mike grinned as he glanced at his partner before returning his attention back to the road. He didn't think Steve had stopped smiling since picking him up for duty. Even the morning spent testifying in court had not ruined the Inspector's happy mood.

"She said 'Yes'." Steve laughed, still unable to believe that she had actually accepted his proposal.

"Like there was ever any doubt!" Mike chuckled and playfully slapped his partner on the shoulder.

_"Inspectors 8-1, possible homicide, Pier 24. Will you respond?"_

Steve grabbed the mic and pushed the button. "Inspectors 8-1 to headquarters. Will respond to the possible homicide on Pier 24. Code 3" Steve grabbed the red light and plopped it on top of the car.

"You heard the man. Get a move on," Mike ordered his partner.

XXXXXXX

Pulling his coat a little tighter around himself in an attempt to stop the icy cold wind from the water, Mike hurried across the sand to where the patrol officer stood near the body of a young woman. The officer's partner stood a few feet away talking to a distraught young man. Reaching the patrolman, Mike asked, "What have we got, Jim?"

"A man walking his dog along the pier spotted the body. He thought that she might have slipped and fallen into the water. He jumped in and got her back to the shore but when he rolled her over, he realized that she was dead and that this probably wasn't a drowning." Lowering his voice so the small crowd who were gathering nearby to watch the action couldn't hear, he added, "She's been badly beaten Mike, and her underwear is missing."

"Possible rape?" Mike asked.

The officer nodded as he glanced at Steve as Steve knelt down and began to study the body before he turned back to Mike, "Looks like it."

Steve froze and felt the blood drain from his face as he looked down at the girl's hands. He stared at the diamond engagement ring on her finger. 'It couldn't be, please, no, not her…' he pleaded silently, his heart refusing to believe what his head was telling him. He swallowed hard, praying that he was wrong, his voice breaking slightly as he softly called, "M…Mike…" Mike frowned and turned towards him as he reached up and gently brushed the damp, brown hair away from the victim's badly beaten face with a shaking hand.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

* * *

Reaching the door to the Homicide squad room, Jeannie paused as she quickly removed the ring from her finger and slipped it into her pocket before she pushed the door open and entered. She glanced towards her father's office and saw Steve slumped on a chair with Mike hovering close by. The closer she got to the office, the more she could tell that neither Steve nor Mike looked to be too happy. She was suddenly very glad that she had decided not to tell them about her engagement at that time. Something bad must have happened, and a happy announcement would just make things worse.

She knocked gently on the door. Mike looked up and saw it was his daughter, so he stood up and walked around his desk to meet her outside. Steve didn't even look up from his lap. He was in no mood to care about what was going on around him.

As Mike stepped out of his office, Jeannie gave him a concerned look. "What's wrong? Did something bad happen to Steve?"

"Sweetheart, sit down," he told her, pointing toward Steve's desk chair. He sat on the edge of Steve's desk. "Last night, Steve asked Dianne to marry him."

Jeannie widened her eyes. "Really? Did she say no?"

Mike looked down. "No, that's not...we found her in the Bay this morning."

"Oh Mike, Dianne- no! What happened?" Jeannie gasped in shock before she looked past her father at the devastated man sitting in his office, before she added softly, "Is Steve okay?"

Mike shook his head. "He's not taking this well...at all. And I don't know what to say."

"Well, it had to have been an accident, right? Some kind of accident…" She trailed off, realizing that if her father and his partner were looking into her death, it was not just an accident.

Mike sadly shook his head, his own heart breaking as he broke the news to his daughter, aware that Jeannie and Dianne had become quite close friends since Steve had started dating the young woman. "Dianne was found floating in the bay just off the pier by a man walking his dog this afternoon. We were called to the scene; Steve identified the body…"

"Oh, Daddy," Jeannie cried as her father wrapped his arms around her, hugging her as the tears rolled down her face.

"How... how did it happen?" Jeannie whispered through her tears.

"We are still waiting for the M.E's report." Mike answered slowly.

Pulling away from her father, Jeannie looked him in the eye, aware that he was avoiding answering her question. "Was she...?" she asked softly.

Swallowing hard, Mike nodded, "We think so... but we won't know for certain until..."

Biting her bottom lip, Jeannie nodded as she wiped her eyes and drew a deep breath and looked towards Mike's office. "How's Steve?"

"Steve is...devastated. Dianne was the one in his eyes. Not only is she gone, but she was taken away by someone else. I've been trying to get him to go home, but you know him. He's not leaving until he finds out who killed her."

"Will he be on the case though?"

Mike shrugged. "It won't matter to him anyway." He looked toward his office, worried that the young man inside would try to take matters into his own hands.

Jeannie nodded knowingly. "You think he'd come home with me? I could take him back to our place, talk to him…"

"Maybe. You can always give it a try."

Nodding, Jeannie opened her bag and grabbed a tissue, wiping the tears from her face before she took a deep breath to calm herself as she rose from the chair and walked across to Mike's office. She paused a moment before opening the door, in an attempt to compose herself before she entered and said softly, "Steve?" Her breath caught in her throat as Steve looked up and she saw the total devastation written in his face, his eyes were swollen and red from crying, as the tears rolled freely down his cheeks. Running across to where he was seated, she dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around him, unable to stop her own tears from falling again as he sobbed on her shoulder.

"She dead!" he whispered broken-hearted into her ear, "I asked her to marry me and now she is gone."

"I know." Jeannie murmured, as she gently rubbed his back and held him closer. "I'm so sorry. How about you come home with me? Let Mike and the others investigate?"

Steve pulled out of her arms, his eyes were blazing, surprising and shocking her with his sudden anger. "No!" he growled angrily as he suddenly launched himself from his chair and began to pace the small office like a caged tiger, running his fingers through his hair as he demanded, "I want in on this case! I want to catch the bastard who did this! I promised Dianne last night that I would marry her and look after her and I broke that promise but I promise I will find the scum who murdered her. They are not going to get away with it!"

Rushing into his office. Mike grabbed his distraught partner. "Easy, Buddy Boy, easy."

Turning to Mike, as his anger left him as quickly as it had flared, Steve begged, "Please Mike, please, don't let them lock me out of this case."

Xxxxxx

Staring up at the bright light above the autopsy table in an attempt to divert his attention from watching as the Medical Examiner placed the last couple of closing stitches in the young woman's body, Rudy Olson asked impatiently, "Well?"

"Time of death was between the hours of ten and midday," the Medical Examiner answered distractedly as he carefully cut the thread and placed the large needle back into the kidney dish, nodding at his assistant to place the body back into the drawer and to clean the area. Turning away from the table, he removed his bloody gloves and gown as he walked across to the sink to wash his hands, confident that the police captain was following him as he continued with his report, "She was raped and severely beaten, she suffered fractures to her face, ribs and right arm but death was not caused by blunt force trauma, cause of death is drowning."

"Drowning, are you sure?" Rudy asked.

"I found salt water in her lungs and stomach. My guess is she was probably unconscious from the beating when she was thrown into the water after the assault. She didn't have a chance. Also we managed to get obtain some semen when we ran the rape test. It was pretty degraded from the salt water but we managed to obtain enough to identify the rapist's blood type as AB negative. " Bernie continued as he grabbed the clipboard and began to fill out his report, "I heard this is the young woman that Steve Keller has been dating."

"He asked her to marry him last night."

"Wow!" Bernie paused with his pen hovering over the page, "How is he taking it?"

"Hard," Rudy answered, "him and Mike were the first homicide responders. He identified her at the scene."

Releasing a breath, Bernie whispered, "Damn!"

Rudy nodded silently, he was unsure just how his young Inspector was going to deal with it, hell, he didn't know if it had happened to him how he would even start to deal with something like Keller was currently enduring. "Thanks Bernie." He murmured as he turned and walked out of the lab.

XXXXXXXX

Rudy reached Mike's office and looked in before he knocked. Mike was consoling his partner, who looked like he'd been run over by a bus. He felt bad for the young man, but he knew asking the questions he needed to ask would need to be done sooner or later. He knocked, and Mike looked up, waving in his boss. "Sorry to interrupt, Mike, but I… "

Mike shook his head as he let go of Steve. "Not a problem, Rudy." Mike told Steve to sit down in the chair and Mike sat down at his desk.

"I just need to ask Steve some questions, but if now is a bad time, I can come back."

Steve shook his head. "No, now is fine," he said, wiping the tears out of his eyes. "The quicker we catch Dianne's killer, the better."

Rudy nodded. "Okay. Well, when was the last time you saw Dianne?"

Steve took a deep breath. "Last night, late. Probably around one. I dropped her off at her place and went home."

"What kind of mood was she in?" Rudy knew how stupid that question sounded the second he said it. "I mean, I know she was happy. She had just gotten engaged. What I mean more is, well, was she worried about anything? Looking over her shoulder?"

Steve shook his head. "Not at all. She couldn't have been happier or more relaxed. We both couldn't have been."

Jeannie could tell Steve's emotions were threatening him again, so she took his hand and squeezed it for reassurance.

"Did she ever mention someone giving her trouble? Maybe a guy who was getting a little too friendly, someone at work hassling her?"

"No! If someone was after her, I would have taken care of him already!" Steve shouted.

Rudy and Mike gave each other knowing looks. "Is there anyone you were suspicious of?"

"Everyone loved Dianne. Everyone."

Rudy simply nodded. "So after you dropped her off, you never saw or heard from her again?"

Steve looked down at his lap. The words "never saw or heard from her again" stabbed him in the heart like a knife. "No," he muttered through tears.

Mike stood up. "Maybe we can continue the questions later, huh Rudy?"

The captain nodded.

Steve looked up at his boss. "How did she die?"

Rudy stared at Steve like a deer in headlights. He didn't expect Steve to ask so quickly. "Well...I'm not sure…"

"You know! You were down talking to Bernie, weren't you? What did he say?"

Rudy looked to Mike for guidance.

"Buddy Boy, you don't need to know that…"

"Yes I do!" Steve shouted. "Someone tell me how she died or I'll go down and ask Bernie myself!"

Rudy sighed. "She drowned."

"That's it?!" Steve asked in disbelief.

"She was beaten...and raped." Rudy felt like a ton of bricks had just fallen on his head.

Steve squeezed Jeannie's hand so hard that she winced in pain. He then stood up and paced around the room. He kicked Mike's desk and broke a few pencils. Then he looked up at the two men. "Where do we start?"

"We? You mean you and Mike?" Rudy asked.

"Yeah, what do we do first?"

Rudy shook his head. "Steve, you know you can't be a part of this investigation."

Steve approached Rudy and stood right in front of him. "I have to be part of this. I have to catch Dianne's killer! I can't just sit at home and wait for you guys to hand me news!" He was pleading at this point.

"I'm sorry Steve. You know the rules," was all Rudy said.

Steve looked to Mike for a different answer.

"You know it has to be that way. If dad says no, mom's gonna say no too."

Steve looked at them both angrily then stormed out of the room.

Quickly rising to her feet, Jeannie turned to follow.

"No Jeannie, let him go!" Mike said softly, as he grabbed her arm to stop her, "He needs some time by himself."

"But…" She began to protest.

"Trust me," her father sighed, "But I do want you to go home and be there in case he ends up there. He's going to need someone he believes he can trust to talk to."

Swallowing hard, Jeannie wiped away the tears that were falling and nodded before she turned and hurried out of the office.

XXXXXXX

Stepping out into the sunshine, Jeannie heard her name called and turned around as her fiancé hurried to join her.

"Are you okay?" he asked her gently.

She nodded and dabbed her eyes, "It's just so hard knowing that last night Steve and Dianne were just as happy as we are and now …" She swallowed hard as he drew her into his arms and kissed her gently, not caring who was watching or who saw.

"I know." He whispered softly in her ear. "But I promise you we will find whoever did this to Dianne."

"I know you will." She sniffled into his coat before looking up at him. "It's just … I mean with everything that has happened that maybe now is not the time to tell Mike about us."

"We can postpone our engagement, if you like," he said quietly, looking into her eyes, "until after the funeral and we have solved the case. "

She shook her head, "No, I don't want to do that," She bit her lip as she looked back up at him, "But maybe we can postpone telling Mike or Steve yet."

"Okay," He smiled before he kissed her gently again and whispered, "That's why I love you Jeannie Stone, you care about everyone. Now I better get back upstairs before your dad or Captain Olsen realizes I'm missing. Will I see you tonight?"

"I'm not sure." Jeannie answered truthfully.

"I will give you a call." He smiled before he kissed her once more and turned to hurry back inside the station.

Fingering the ring within her pocket, Jeannie felt torn between her own happiness of her own engagement to the man whom she loved the most in the world and watching Steve's devastation, knowing the one woman whom Steve loved above all overs had been so cruelly torn away from him only hours after agreeing to be his wife. She turned and walked slowly towards the tram, wondering where Steve was now.

* * *

**Chapter 3**

* * *

He stood leaning against his Porsche, staring at the restaurant. Less than twenty-four hours ago, inside that very building, he had set his future in stone. He looked right into Dianne's deep brown eyes and asked, "Will you marry me?" She of course said yes. Rather, she shouted yes, which got the attention of the whole restaurant. Before, no one had realized that they were dining in the middle of an engagement. Now that they knew, they all cheered for the happy couple as the two showed their affection for one another, oblivious to all around them.

Now he was alone. It was just him, a car, and some memories that he wasn't even sure were real. Had he even been here the night before? Maybe he dreamt that part. Perhaps he hadn't even proposed to Dianne. He had been thinking about it for so long that maybe last night was just another rehearsal in his mind. It all seemed so real though. He could still smell the scent of her new perfume that she had bought just for that date. He could see every detail of the dress she wore. He could feel her body trembling as they held each other, so excited about their new future that they couldn't contain it.

This was the same restaurant, but it didn't look the same. What yesterday were just brick walls and a cherry wood door were now painful reminders of a worthless existence. They mocked and laughed at him, making light of his pain. "You were meant to be alone, Keller," they taunted. He looked up and down the street, looking for refuge from the taunts, but all he saw were people looking at him suspiciously, thinking to themselves what a loser he was. _'Can't even keep your girlfriend safe. Some cop you are.' ' Til Death Do You Part came awfully early, didn't it, Steve?'_

He couldn't take it anymore, so he rushed back into the sanctuary of his car. At least it seemed familiar and welcoming ... as long as he didn't look at the passenger's side seat, where Dianne had sat many a day and night. He kept his eyes firmly focused on the road. He couldn't lose the car too. He turned the engine over and sped off toward the piers.

XXXXXX

The crime scene tape had been removed; the lab had collected all the evidence they could find. Now it was just another piece of land like every other piece of land on the peninsula. It meant nothing to anyone else, but it was sacred ground to Steve. It was the final resting place of his beloved, yet here he stood watching people trample all over it. How could they? Didn't they know a woman died there? Did they have no feelings?

Steve became extremely angry as he stormed up to the pier. He flashed his badge and told the two men there to leave. Not wanting to get hassled by a cop, they quickly vacated, leaving Steve to his peace.

He looked down at the water. Flashes of what might have happened appeared in his line of sight. He saw her floating on top of the water...under the water struggling to breathe...fighting with her attacker as he cruelly pushed her off the dock. He hoped and prayed that she didn't suffer for long. Death by drowning, he'd heard, was a painful and scary way to go. She didn't deserve that.

She didn't deserve to die either. Did she call out for him while she was being raped? Did she wonder where he was as she was being beaten? Did she die thinking he didn't care? I should have stayed with you, he kept telling himself. If he hadn't gone home, or if he'd taken her back to his place like he'd wanted to, this wouldn't have happened. She insisted they each go to their own places though because both had early morning activities. If they'd stayed together, neither would have gotten any sleep. Now, as Steve stood and watched his sad reflection in the water, he realized how much sleep really didn't matter.

Slowly he sunk down onto the wooden planked floor and pulled his knees to his chest, hugging them tightly as the tears began to fall as he stared out at the darkness that had begun to descend. "I'm sorry, Oh God, I'm so sorry…" he whispered brokenheartedly into the breeze.

xxxxxxx

Pulling into the parking space, Mike sat watching the forlorn figure sitting at the end of the pier staring out over the dark water. He had received a call from one of the guys who was patrolling the area who had been investigating reports of an agitated young man on the pier. Mike's heart ached to see his partner hurting as much as Steve was, and his thoughts wandered back to when his own world had been torn apart by Helen's death. Her loss had been unbearable, and there were moments when he wondered if he was strong enough to go on. If it hadn't been for Jeannie…he pushed away the unwanted thoughts and focused again on the lonely figure of his partner. Slowly, he opened the door and climbed out of the car, closing the door softly behind him as the patrolman hurried across to him from the shadow of the trees where he had been watching the upset inspector.

"He's just been sitting there, staring out at the water. I tried to get him to go home, but he doesn't seem to be aware that I was there," the officer began as he reached Mike. "It's getting late and the temperature is starting to drop, and after I heard what happened I thought I better give you a call."

"Thanks Paul." Mike forced a small smile as he patted the officer lightly on the shoulder. "I will take care of him."

"Tell Steve how sorry I am for his loss," The officer said quietly. "If you need extra guys to help with the investigation, I would like to give you a hand. I've known Steve since we were in the academy together and have double dated with him and Dianne a couple of times…"

"I'll tell Steve and if we need help, I will contact you," Mike nodded distractedly as he began to walk towards the pier, leaving the officer standing next to the car.

"Hey, Buddy Boy," Mike said softly as he reached the end of the pier where Steve was sitting and gingerly sat down beside him, dangling his own legs over the edge of the pier as he looked out over the water. "I was wondering where you were."

"Now you found me." Steve sighed, his eyes never leaving the water.

Mike nodded and stayed silent as he covertly glanced towards his partner. Even in the dim moonlight, he could see Steve had been crying.

"I'm okay." Steve sighed again. "I don't need a babysitter."

"I know you don't but it's getting cold. How about we go and have something to eat?" Mike suggested quietly as he pulled his jacket a little tighter around himself. "I'm starving and you probably haven't eaten either."

"I'm not hungry," Steve answered.

"Then how about you come and watch me eat?" Mike replied before placing his hand lightly on Steve's back as he added, "Maybe help me work out some of the places Dianne might have gone this morning?"

Turning to look at his partner, Steve asked hopefully, "So you're going to let me work on the case?"

"Not work, Steve, but we do need your help to work out Dianne's movements this morning," Mike answered firmly as he carefully rose to his feet before reaching down and grabbing Steve's hand, pulling him to his feet as he added, "I'm starving, and I feel like some pizza."

"No anchovies."

Mike smiled as they began to walk back towards the car. "No anchovies, this time, but next time…"

XXXXX

Mike and Steve walked into Mama's and were seated in a booth near the back. It was secluded enough that they could talk without anyone overhearing. After ordering a pizza, Mike got right down to business. "I'm trying to figure out why Dianne never made it to work. I need to know what might have happened between the time you dropped her off and the time we found her. I went to Dianne's apartment for a few minutes this afternoon and noticed that there was no forced entry, so either she let someone in, or she left on her own. Did she frequently leave her place in the middle of the night?"

Steve, who was concentrating on wadding up a napkin instead of looking at his partner, shrugged. "She sometimes had trouble sleeping, so she'd go walk around the apartment complex. I hated it when she did that because I was worried about who she'd run into, but it had always been fine...until now."

"Okay, we'll look into it. I plan on talking to neighbors tomorrow."

"She also would go for early morning runs. Sometimes as early as four."

Mike nodded. "Her bed didn't appear to be slept in. It was made up pretty tight when I saw it. Would she have made the bed before she went running?"

Steve shook his head. "Anytime I stayed overnight, she didn't make her bed until right before she left for work...if she made it at all." He finally looked up at Mike. "You think after I dropped her off, she left without even going to bed?"

"Maybe. At least it sure seemed like she hadn't been there long. But like I said, I didn't stay at her place for too long. I'll take a closer look tomorrow."

Steve looked back down at the table. He then quickly snapped his head back up. "Wait a second. I just thought of something. Gail."

Mike looked at him, confused. "Who is Gail?"

"A good friend of hers from college. The woman's been having issues with her boyfriend, husband...whatever he is. She's been calling Dianne in the middle of the night after they've had a fight. I know Dianne has left a few times to go comfort her. Two, three in the morning. Dianne didn't care." Steve smiled. "She cared about people so much. One of the many things I loved about her."

"Where does the woman live?"

"Um...somewhere in Potrero Hill. Probably near you I suppose."

"Well, that would be close to where we found her. Do you know Gail's last name?"

Steve twisted the napkin up a bit while he tried to remember if Dianne ever mentioned Gail's last name. "It was something common...like Smith or Jones. Well, not that common. No...It was something that started with an H. Harris...yeah, I think it was Gail Harris. And her husband's name was Stewart. Stewart Harris."

Mike jotted down the names on a piece of paper. "We'll talk to her, see if she called Dianne last night. Is there anything else you can think of?"

Steve shook his head. "She wasn't in any trouble, Mike. She was a good woman, and she didn't keep secrets from me."

"I'm sure whatever happened was from no fault of her own, Buddy Boy."

"I hope so," Steve said, sadness and insecurity evident in his voice. He fell silent as the waiter arrived and placed the large pizza on the table between them.

"Let's eat and then how about we go back to my place and try and get some sleep." Mike suggested, taking a slice of pizza.

Steve nodded as he reluctantly picked up a slice of pizza and took a small bite before he lowered it back down onto the plate in front of him as he looked across at Mike. "I might just go home tonight, if you don't mind Mike. I just want some time alone."

"I understand." Mike answered, "But if you change your mind..."

"I won't."

Xxxxxx

Holding the warm mug of coffee between her hands, Jeannie stared at the doorway, willing Steve to appear. It had been hours since he had left Mike's office and there was still no word from him. She quickly placed the mug onto the table and jumped to her feet as she heard the key in the front door, looking expectantly past her father as Mike slowly entered the small kitchen shrugging out of his coat. Her heart sunk to see her father was alone and she asked worriedly, "Did you find Steve?"

"I found him." Mike answered as he reached for a clean mug and picked up the pot of coffee, pouring himself some of the hot brew.

"And?"

"He's safe," Mike quickly began in an attempt to reassure his daughter, "One of the uniform guys spotted him sitting at the end of the pier where Dianne's body was found and gave me a call."

"Why didn't you bring him home?" Jeannie demanded.

"He didn't want to come home with me." Mike told her gently, "He wants to have some time alone, so I dropped him back at his apartment."

"But…" Jeanie started to protest.

"The only way I would have got him back here tonight would have been by handcuffing him and pointing a gun at his head and even then, I have my doubts he would have co-operated." Mike said softly, "Steve's hurting and he wants some time by himself to be able to grieve in private. I know how that feels and I remember just how hard it was for me to grieve when your mother died and there were so many well-meaning people around, wanting to ease my, our pain." He swallowed hard and he blinked back the tears that stung his eyes as he took a deep breath and continued, "All I wanted to do was curl up in a corner and cry, I wanted to shout at the world about how unfair life was and I couldn't, I felt that I had to stay strong… Steve needs to be allowed to…"

Jeannie hurried across to where her father stood and wrapped her arms around him.

* * *

**Chapter 4**

* * *

Mike climbed the steps that led to a modest white house in Potrero Hill. After knocking on the door, he glanced around, looking at everything he could in case something suspicious stood out to him. Seconds later, he heard the door unlock and saw a young brunette open it.

"Yes?" she asked politely.

"Good morning. I'm Lieutenant Stone with the San Francisco Police Department," he replied, flashing her his badge. "Are you Gail Harris?"

"Yes."

"I was wondering if I could have a word with you."

"Did something happen to Stewart?" she asked suddenly frightened.

Mike shook his head. "No. ma'am...I'm here to ask you a few questions about your friend Dianne Mackenzie."

"Oh," she muttered sadly as she stepped aside to let Mike in the door. "Something has happened to her, hasn't it? I just knew it!"

"Ma'am?"

"When she didn't show up a couple night ago, I just figured she'd changed her mind about Wayne."

"I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage," Mike told her.

She offered him a seat and something to drink, which he politely declined. She had a seat in an armchair and explained herself. "Two nights ago, she called me about one thirty, maybe closer to two. She had just gotten a call from her ex-boyfriend Wayne."

Mike took a notepad out of his coat. "Does Wayne have a last name?"

"Um, yeah...Jackson. Wayne Jackson. I can't believe he's still calling her."

"Why's that?"

"He was an abuser. She once even had to get a restraining order against him to get him to leave her alone. I honestly thought he'd finally gotten the message, because she hadn't heard from him in a couple years at least. Not since she'd met Steve anyway. Say, Steve's a cop too. Do you know him? Steve Keller."

Mike nodded. "We've met. So, what was this phone call about?"

"I'm not sure. She was pretty frightened when she called. I think he threatened her or something. He wanted her to do something and when she told him she wouldn't, he threatened her somehow. She didn't feel safe in her apartment, so I told her to come over. I figured I'd get all the details then, but she never showed up. I thought maybe she'd just changed her mind and went to his place instead."

"Did that worry you?"

Gail shrugged. "Yes, but it didn't surprise me. She always had a weakness for him. I thought maybe it just resurfaced. I tried calling her all day yesterday, but when she never answered...then I got scared. If she did meet up with him…"

"This Wayne, is he the violent type?"

"Do you mean do I think he could have killed her or something? Absolutely. The man had quite a temper when he was drinking. And he always was kind of possessive of Dianne. If he'd found out that she was seeing someone else...yeah, he could have snapped." She looked down at her lap. "Is that what happened? Did he snap?"

"We're still investigating. Could you give me a physical description of him?"

Gail thought for a moment and then told Mike he was a little over 6 feet tall, about 200 pounds, dark brown hair, dark eyes, and had a slight scar on his chin and a couple tattoos on both his upper arms.

Mike stood up and pulled a card out of his wallet, handing it to Gail. "If you think of anything else, I hope you give me a call."

She agreed and showed him out of her house.

He ran down the steps, got in his car, and grabbed the mic. He quickly asked headquarters for the last known address and any wants or warrants for Wayne Jackson. He was going to have to have a little discussion with this new suspect.

XXXXX

On his way to Wayne Jackson's place, Mike drove and walked possible routes Dianne could have taken from her apartment to Gail's house. He scoured the ground for clues. He talked to anyone who was out loitering, showing Dianne's picture to them in the hopes that they had seen something. One man, a homeless drunkard who squatted in the area, insisted that he had seen her on the night in question. He remembered her because she was nicely dressed, which was odd for the neighbourhood.

Mike pressed and, with the help of a $20 bribe, managed to get a slight description of a possible suspect. The old man had seen a large dark car sitting on the street. After Dianne walked by, the man in the car, whom the old man guessed was in his thirties and roughly six feet tall with a medium build, got out and approached her. She then got into his car, although he claimed she didn't look like she was completely willing.

Having seen nothing else of value, like a license plate number, Mike thanked the man and went on his way to Wayne's.

Arriving at a dumpy hotel turned apartment building on Eddy, Mike glanced at his notes. Unit 2E was where Wayne Jackson supposedly lived. Before entering the building, Mike looked around the street to see if there was a large dark colored car nearby. On a busy street like Eddy, there were several, so he shrugged and went inside.

After several knocks on the door, Mike started to turn around when the door finally opened.

"What do you want?" growled a man who was exactly as Gail had described. He kept the door latched.

Mike showed him his badge and announced himself and his reason for being there.

"Don't tell me that bitch called the cops on me! I didn't even do anything!"

"Would you please open the door, Mr. Jackson?"

Wayne grumbled some more as he unlatched the chain and fully opened the door. He walked away, allowing Mike to simply follow him inside.

"All I wanted was some damn bail money, so I didn't have to spend the night in that god forsaken shithole of a drunk tank. But no! She had to flip out and claim I was harassing her. I just wanted her to bail me out!"

"Okay. Okay, Mr. Jackson. Why don't you start from the beginning?"

Wayne plopped down on his ratty, threadbare couch. "I got picked up last night over on Geary. DUI. It was my second, so your fine boys in blue threw me in the drunk tank and told me I could go home in the morning unless I coughed up a couple hundred or something. I dunno. I don't carry that kind of bread, so I call the one person I know who does. Only she...how do you fancy folk put it...misconstrued the entire situation. She refuses to bail me out and starts screaming that I'm stalking her and going to get her or some shit. I dunno, man...she must be seeing some dude who's putting this crap in her head."

"So you were in jail all night? When were you arrested?" Mike asked, jotting down the information in his notebook.

"Got me. Eleven, midnight?" Wayne just shrugged.

"What station?"

"The one on Fillmore. Why you asking me all this? I told you, I didn't do anything to Dianne! She cries abuse all the time. I only laid a hand on her once, and that's cus I was drunk. Hell, you should have seen the shiner she gave me!"

"When's the last time you saw Dianne?"

"Hell if I know...six months, a year? Ran into her on the street outside some fancy coffee shop. Didn't touch her then, didn't touch her now."

"When did they let you out?"

"I was subjected to your fine hospitality until a little after midday, yesterday. That all, officer?"

"Lieutenant," Mike answered curtly before closing his notebook and returning it to his coat pocket. "And I'll be sure to check this alibi out."

* * *

**Chapter 5**

* * *

Mike sat at his desk looking at Wayne Jackson's rap sheet while he was on hold with the Northern Station. As he waited on the man's alibi, he looked at his previous accusations and arrests, including a few drunk and disorderly, a couple public intoxication, and more domestic violence charges than Mike was comfortable with. There was also a record of a restraining order against him, taken out by Dianne Mackenzie, which was later dropped. He paused a moment as his call was answered and after asking for confirmation about Jackson's arrest before thanking the officer and slowly hanging up. Jackson had not been lying. His alibi checked out.

Rising from his desk he walked across to the door and called for Lee to join him after the Lee when he finished the call he was currently taking. The younger man waved an acknowledgment of the order before returning his attention back to the phone call. Closing the door. Mike turned back and stared out at his Homicide inspectors, his eyes lingering on Steve's vacant desk and his heart sunk at how little progress they had made on this case. Steve needed answers and he was not yet able to give his grieving partner any. Wayne Jackson had an airtight alibi, arrested for DUI several miles away from Dianne's apartment almost two hours before the time that Gail had stated Dianne had rung and Dianne's neighbor had confirmed he had seen Dianne leave the apartment, and not released until after Dianne's body had been found, ruled him out of being a suspect. Mike sighed again as his office door opened and Lee entered his office with Rudy close behind, demanding an update on the case.

Sitting on the edge of his desk, Mike waited a moment before Rudy sat down on the chair and Lee closed the door before he began, "We know that Steve dropped Dianne off at her apartment about one in the morning and she entered her apartment alone. I checked with a neighbor yesterday who said he saw Dianne leave the apartment about an hour later, alone and walk down the street."

"Alone?" Rudy frowned, "Why would she leave the apartment at two in the morning alone?"

"Steve told me she often couldn't sleep and would go for early morning runs but he also mentioned that she would also leave the apartment during the night when a friend would call. She told Steve the friend, Gail Harris, was having difficulties with her husband and Dianne would go over to comfort her friend." Mike told Rudy before adding, "I spoke with Gail Harris and it seems that Dianne was not being totally honest with Steve."

"How so?" Rudy asked.

"It seems it was not Gail Harris who was having trouble with her husband, Dianne was having trouble with an ex-boyfriend, Wayne Jackson, who could not handle the fact that they were no longer together, and that Dianne was now dating someone else. She had a restraining order against him, seems that it was a very abusive and violent relationship." Mike explained as Rudy leaned forward as he continued, "Mrs. Harris told me he has been calling and threatening Dianne and each time Dianne would go to her for protection. Mrs Harris said that she received a call from Dianne about one thirty, two o'clock yesterday morning, she was upset and scared after receiving another call from Jackson. Mrs Harris told her to come over but when she did not arrive, she just believed that Dianne had changed her mind or decided to go to his place instead, apparently she still had a soft spot for Jackson."

"And this ex-boyfriend Jackson?"

"A few drunk and disorderlies, a couple of public intoxications and domestic violence charges brought against him by Dianne, but she later dropped the charge. Seems he would use her as his punching bag when he got drunk." Mike growled in disgust, "But I checked him out. He was arrested for DUI at midnight over at Geary and spent the night in locked up at Fillmore. I checked he wasn't released until after midday. Seems it took him a while to sober up."

"What about the phone call the friend said Dianne received?"

"He called her to bail him out and when she refused, he tried to threaten her."

"So, we are back to square one."

"Not quite." Mike replied, "I decided to walk the route that Dianne would have taken to Mrs Harris's home and spoke to several people who might have seen her, and I hit gold. A homeless man thinks he saw Dianne about the time she disappeared. He said he saw a man in his thirties, about six feet tall, medium build, get out of an old large dark car and speak to her. He then said she got into the car although he did not think she did so willingly."

"Why didn't he report it?" Rudy demanded.

"He didn't think much of it at the time, but I've had him picked up and have him downstairs at the moment going through the mug books, hopefully he might be able to give us a lead."

Rudy nodded his head. "Okay, have we got anything from the crime scene?"

Mike shook his head as he rose to his feet and walked to his filing cabinet before opening it and taking out a rolled piece of paper. Walking back to his desk he unrolled the sheet of paper revealing a map of the bay and the city as Rudy and lee joined him. Pointing at the location of the pier, Mike began. "Dianne's body was found here and we know from the autopsy report that cause of death was drowning. We also know that time of death was placed one to three hours before she was found."

"So the tide would have been going out." Lee added as he stared at the map.

"And given the currents in that part of the bay where her body was found and the running of the outgoing tide…" Rudy mused staring at the map, "and the fact we know she was possibly abducted. We could be looking for the murder scene in this area." He concluded as he picked up a pencil and circled an area on the map.

Mike nodded as he turned and grabbed his jacket and hat, before turning back and grabbing the map. "Let's go and see if we can find the exact spot." He said as he headed towards the door.

Just as the trio was exiting Mike's office, a disheveled Steve came wandering into Homicide. He had dark circles under his eyes, he hadn't shaved, and his clothes looked slept in.

Mike turned to Rudy and Lee and told them he would meet them downstairs. He then walked up to his partner. "Buddy Boy, what are you doing here? You should be home taking it easy."

Steve shook his head. "Can't. Too many reminders and stuff there to sit around and dwell on. I need to keep busy. Anything new on the case?"

Mike sighed. "You can't work it, Steve."

"I'm not…" Anger was rising in Steve, so he took a deep breath before he continued. "I'm not trying to hone in on the case, honest. I just want to know if you've gotten any closer."

Mike placed his hand on Steve's shoulder. "Rudy, Lee, and I are leaving to work on something right now. Look, if you're not going to take a few days off...why don't you catch up on some of the cold cases or paperwork. We'll be back soon enough."

Steve glanced over at his desk, disliking the idea of sitting there typing all afternoon. "Sure, Mike," was all he said.

He took a seat as Mike left the office. He sat for a while, aimlessly looking over case files he hadn't touched since Dianne's discovery. It all seemed so pointless. He almost didn't even care if the cases were ever solved. That thought worried him. He knew he cared, or he wouldn't be an inspector, but all the unknowns about Dianne's murder were clouding his judgment. He told himself that once her killer was found, he would care about life more. But until then… He glanced over at Mike's empty office and then all around the bullpen. Everyone was busy with their own tasks, and it wouldn't look strange to see Steve going into Mike's office when he wasn't there, so he stood up and walked in. He casually glanced around Mike's desk seeing if there were any notes he might have inadvertently left out. Looking down at the scattered files, he set eyes on Wayne Jackson's rap sheet. Picking it up as casually as he could, he quickly scanned the pages, reading through everything, including the name of the person who took out the restraining order - Dianne Mackenzie. Steve had no idea who this Wayne Jackson was, but if he had been physically abusive with Dianne in the past, Steve was going to get to know him. He grabbed a slip of paper, quickly jotted the man's address down, a before he turned and hurried out of the office.

xxxxxxx

Steve ran up the steps of the Eddy apartment building to the second floor. By now, he had the number/letter combination of 2E tattooed on his brain. If this guy was the killer, he would never forget it as long as he lived. He stood at the door with the 2E nailed on the front. He took a deep breath in an effort to calm himself down. He knew he couldn't go in there, guns blazing, or he would lose his job for sure. He had to talk to this guy like any old suspect. He had to act like this guy had nothing to do with Dianne.

Knocking on the door brought nothing but silence. Knocking again brought the same. Steve then tried banging on the door with his whole hand. "Wayne Jackson, open up!" he shouted.

"Damn, Man! Give a guy a minute!" Wayne shouted from the other side. Soon enough, Wayne opened the door fully and saw a less than friendly looking man in a trench coat. "Who are you?" he grumbled.

Steve flashed his badge so quickly that Wayne hardly saw it. "Inspector Keller, Homicide. I want to ask you some questions about Dianne Mackenzie."

"Again?! Man, some other dude was already here. I told him I ain't got nothin' to do with that!"

Steve stepped in without being asked. "Well, he might not have asked the questions I have," he said as he walked.

Wayne sighed and closed the door. "This is getting to be harassment. Look, I'm sorry the chick is hurt or whatever, but I was nowhere near her!"

Steve whipped his head around. "Hurt? You think I'd be here if she was just hurt?!"

Wayne stared at him for a moment. Then he realized what department Steve said he was from. "She's dead? OH MAN...I did NOT do that! No way! I was in jail that whole night and half the next day!"

"Why did she have a restraining order against you?" Steve barked.

Wayne shrugged and tried to walk around Steve, but the inspector grabbed him lightly by the throat and shoved him into the wall. "I'll ask you again. Why did she have a restraining order out on you? Did she reject your lewd advances? You rough her up thinking she'd love you then? I've seen plenty of guys like you. Think they can control a woman with force. Dianne was too smart for that though."

"Force her to love me? What the hell…"

"Yeah...what did you do, stalk her? Follow her around town?"

"She was my girlfriend, Man! I didn't have to force her to do anything!"

Steve let go of Wayne and looked him up and down. "She dated you?"

Wayne straightened his shirt. "Why is that so hard to believe? I'm hot property!"

"You're a worthless drunk!"

"Yeah, well, Dianne was too. Dumb bitch was always shouting abuse, even when I didn't hit her! Too bad for her that no one believed her because they could smell the booze on her breath!"

Steve hauled off and punched Wayne in the face.

Wayne tried staggering to his feet, but the blow was hard enough to disorient him. "The hell?! Who do you think you are?!"

"Dianne was NOT a drunk! She barely even drank alcohol!"

Wayne looked up at Steve and chuckled. "You must be the new jerk in her life. Boy, has she got you snowed!"

Steve grabbed Wayne and yanked him to his feet, again slamming him up against the wall.

"Look, Man ... I dunno what she has you believing, but she used to be quite the partier. That's how we met. Your perfect lady is anything but. Maybe she got herself killed going back to her old ways…" Before he could say another word, Steve punched him again, this time in the stomach.

As the man fell to the floor doubled over, Steve stormed out of the room. He couldn't stand to hear any more lies.

* * *

**Chapter 6**

* * *

Driving slowly along the dirt road that hugged the shore of the bay, the three men in the car searched for any signs that another car had recently travelled along the lonely desolate road or any signs of disturbance to the vegetation that indicated that someone might have been here. Their calculations in the office pinpointed this general area and the remoteness of where they now found themselves made the ideal place to take a victim to rape and murder. No one would notice a car travelling along the road so early in the morning and Dianne's screams for help would go unheard. But so far, the hour they had spent searching long forgotten roads had been fruitless and the thoughts that the crime scene would not be discovered remained unspoken.

Squinting through the thick screen of trees and shrubs that grew either side of the road, Lee frowned as he caught the fleeting flash of sunlight reflecting off of something in the through the trees. "Mike, stop the car, I think I see something." He ordered excitedly as he kept his eyes trained on the spot where he had seen the flash of light.

Braking hard, Mike barely had time to bring the car to a safe stop before Lee was out of the car and headed towards the thick underbrush.

"I think there could be a cabin or something down here. I think I saw the sun reflect off a window or something." The young Inspector announced as he began to slip and slide down the embankment beside the car as Rudy and Mike hurried to join him. He paused a moment later as he found himself staring at a small torn piece of white material snagged on one of the branches and nodded towards it as he whispered, "Mike."

Looking past Mike's shoulder at the small shred of material flattering in the light breeze, Rudy whispered, "Dianne's blouse?"

Gritting his teeth, Mike nodded silently before they continued down towards where Lee had seen the reflection.

"There!" Lee whispered, pointing at a small one room log cabin almost hidden from sight near the edge of the water.

"Careful!" Mike whispered as he and Rudy drew their weapons, "If our suspect is still in there, he could be armed." He reminded the younger man before he ordered, "You take the back, we'll take the front."

Drawing his own weapon, Lee nodded before quickly moving through the underbrush as Mike and Rudy quietly approached the front.

Standing on either side of the closed front door, Mike held up his fingers and counted down silently from three before turning and kicking the door open, shouting 'Police' as he and Rudy rushed into the cabin, guns ready for any potential trouble. A quick scan of the room revealed nobody was home and replacing their guns into their holster, they slowly began to move through the tiny room, being careful not to disturb the bloody ropes and sheets laying discarded on the bed or the ripped woman's clothing that was strewn around.

Stepping through the cabin's only door, Lee eyed the room around him, aware they had just found the place where Steve's fiancé had met her violent death.

xxxxx

Standing in the middle of the room, Mike watched as the photographer took photos of the clothes scattered on the floor before the lab boys carefully bagged and tagged each item individually. At first glance Mike had thought the clothing had belong to just one victim but on closer inspection, he had realized the torn, bloodied clothing had not just belonged to one individual but to several women. The items which included blouses, dresses, skirts and bras appeared to have been cut free from the victims' bodies. Continuing to watch the activity around him, Mike frowned. Something was missing…

_"She's been badly beaten, Mike, and her underwear is missing."_

'Her underwear is missing.' The words echoed in his head as he looked at each of the carefully labelled bagged items being readied to be taken back to the forensic lab. Blouses, dresses, bras … A chill rippled through his soul as the Lieutenant realized just what item of clothing wasn't there.

"Mike!" He turned as Lee hurried into the cabin.

"We think we might have found where Dianne went into the water." Lee said as he stepped around the photographer, "There are traces of blood and signs of a struggle down on the shore next to the water. We also found more shreds of material and several buttons from Dianne's blouse."

"So, she might have tried to escape?" Mike asked as he headed out of the cabin.

Lee nodded as he followed Mike outside and down to the shore where Rudy was instructing several officers to tape off the area, "Looks that way."

Crouching down, Rudy carefully scanned the surrounding ground, the torn muddy shreds of what once was a white blouse, small scattered delicate buttons, the patches of mud stained red by droplets of blood intermingled with the jumbled mix of shoe and foot prints in the damp mud next to the water told the story of a very violent struggle that had possibly ended with the death of a young woman. A small gold sliver of something in the mud near his foot caught his attention. He pulled his pen from his pocket and being careful not to disturb any of the surrounding ground around it, he carefully nudged it. A broken gold chain pulled loose from the ground's muddy hold and Rudy found himself almost mesmerized by the sad sight of the finely crafted gold cross that dangled from it.

"That's Dianne's."

He looked up at Mike who was staring down at the chain as Mike added softly, "Steve gave it to her a few weeks ago for her birthday. She told him she would never take it off."

Rudy nodded silently as he rose to his feet and stared out over the calm, tranquil waters of the bay that belied the horror that had occurred here less than 48 hours before. "I guess we found our murder site." He sighed softly. Turning back towards the cabin, he ordered, "Mike, I want to know who owns this cabin and I want them brought in for questioning. Also let's find out who owns the clothing we found. Lee, I want any reports of missing woman or reported rapes or abductions, we may have more victims out there, somewhere."

"You don't think?" Lee asked as he followed the two older men up the embankment towards their car.

"I hope not," Mike answered grimly as he carefully climbed the rough hill.

* * *

**Chapter 7**

* * *

Mike and Lee waited for the elevator doors to open before stepping out onto the fourth floor. As they walked out of the car, Mike ran into a man waiting to get on. He turned to apologize, but before he could get the words out, he saw who he had bumped into. "Mr. Jackson, what brings you here?" he asked, as he noticed that Wayne had quite a black eye developing.

"I'm here to see you, Stone, I want to register a complaint."

Mike was taken aback. He hadn't done anything worthy of a complaint against the man. "A complaint? About what?"

"A pushy detective. Turns out he's your partner. Keller."

"What are you talking about? Steve Keller never…"

Wayne pointed at his eye. "He paid me a little visit. Led with his fist."

"Are you trying to tell me that Steve Keller came to see you? That's impossible! He's not even on that case, nor did he know about you."

"Oh really? Guess you forgot to tell him that. He came in yelling at me about her being dead and asking me why she had a restraining order out on me...accusing me of being a stalker! I told him I ain't no stalker, and he hauls off and punches me!"

Mike looked at him with disbelief, "Why would he even touch you?"

"He's upset about someone offing his old lady, I guess. I mean, he didn't tell me he was her new sucker, but I could tell. The new guy buys all her lies against me and when she turns up dead, it's automatically my fault! That son of a bitch punched me in the stomach too! I think he broke a rib! I want him arrested! Police brutality!" he shouted.

"Okay, okay…" Mike said in an effort not to draw a crowd. "Come here." Mike dragged Wayne over to a quiet corner away from Homicide...and prying eyes. "Look, you're more than welcome to press charges against my partner, but I'd like to remind you of one thing before you do. The man just lost his fiancée. They had honestly just gotten engaged the night before she was killed. So his mind is nowhere near where it should be."

"How is that my…""Have you ever loved someone so deeply that they're sudden absence caused you to go a little crazy? Maybe not Dianne, but another woman...or a family member…?"Wayne stood and stared at Mike for what seemed like hours. "Maybe...once."

Mike nodded. "Mmm hmm...and how did you feel? Were you angry?"

"Very. She died in my arms. I'd tried everything, but it was no good. For weeks after, I lashed out at everyone...especially the guy who ran over her."

Mike's eyes widened. "Someone ran over your girlfriend? With a car? And you saw it?!"

Wayne shook his head. "Not my girlfriend, my dog." Wayne looked off in the distance. "Man...I loved that dog. She was the best friend a guy could ever have."

He teared up and Mike rolled his eyes. It wasn't quite what he had been going for, but whatever worked. "So then you know how Steve feels. You wanted to punch the man who...ran over your dog."

Wayne looked back at Mike. "I wanted to kill him...but I didn't."

"Then how about you cut Steve a break, huh? To him, Dianne was like...your dog." He couldn't believe he'd just said that.

Wayne thought for a moment and sighed. "Fine. But keep that maniac away from me!"

"I'll make sure that he doesn't even go anywhere near your neighbourhood, I swear."

Wayne nodded, satisfied before he turned and walked across to the elevator, got on, and disappeared.

Mike frowned, trying to make sense of the odd story he had just heard and the fact that Steve had somehow found out about Wayne. The more he thought, the more his anger rose, so he stormed off toward Homicide in the hopes that his partner had made it back.

Xxxxx

Mike walked into Homicide trying to act as if nothing had happened. On the way to his office, he glanced over at Steve's desk. Steve was sitting there typing a report, acting as if nothing had happened. Mike then entered his office, took off his hat and overcoat, and walked around his desk to sit down. That's when he noticed the file - the one he had left out. Wayne Jackson's file was open for anyone, including Steve, to see. He reprimanded himself for being careless, but it did not excuse Steve's behavior. He closed the folder, put it off to the side, stood up, and called Steve into his office as emotionless as he could.

Steve yawned, stretched, and wandered into Mike's office, not thinking that the older man even knew about what he'd done. "What's goin' on, Mike?" he asked nonchalantly.

"Close the door," was Mike's answer.

Steve shrugged and shut the door.

Where were you this afternoon?" Mike asked, hoping Steve would make this easy and just confess.

"Right here. You told me to work on reports. Why?"

"Oh, really? I called you once, but Art said you were gone, that you'd rushed out of here like your butt was on fire."

Steve stood in place, not even changing his facial expression. "He must have been mistaken. I left to get some coffee…"

"Don't lie to me, Steve. I am the last person you should lie to."

"Lying? I'm not…"

Mike picked up Wayne's folder and threw it in Steve's direction. "What were you hoping to accomplish, huh? Beat a confession out of him? Make him confess to a crime he didn't commit?"

Steve folded his arms over her chest. "He looked good for it…"

"And you know that how?!" Mike yelled. "By snooping through the files on my desk? You know you're not allowed anywhere near this case, yet the minute my back is turned, you're doing whatever pleases you!"

"I just wanted…"

"Wanted what? Huh? To be the lone cowboy avenging the fair maiden's death? You know what usually happens when guys do that?"

Steve hung his head.

"They screw up the investigation! He was this close to pressing charges against you! This close!" Mike put his thumb and index finger close together to illustrate his point. "I managed to talk him out of it...but you got lucky."

"I didn't mean to interfere with the investigation, but I can't sit around here working on other cases like Dianne's doesn't matter!" Steve screamed back. "I saw his sheet and...she had a restraining order out on him, Mike! She never even told me this guy existed!"

"And if you had been patient, I would have told you that he had an alibi. He was in the drunk tank when Dianne was…" He didn't to spell it out.

"I wanted to kill him for what he did to her."

"Do you even know what he did? Maybe it wasn't what you're thinking. If Dianne had felt in any danger from this guy, she would have told you about him. But apparently since she didn't, he didn't scare her anymore, so why get you all worked up over him? You'd have just done what you're doing now."

Steve just sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"Look, I get how much you want to solve this so that you can move on, but going rogue is just going to make matters worse. If you can't be here without wanting in on the case, then go home. Or go to my house and talk to Jeannie. She's worried about you. I know you don't want a babysitter, but how about a friend?"

He looked up at Mike. "And if I don't?"

"I'll tell Rudy what happened. I'll force you to stay away if I have to. Trust me, it will be better for everyone."

Steve turned around, left the office, grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair, and left the squad room without saying another word.

xxxxxx

Biting her bottom lip. Jeannie reached for the phone, her hand hesitating in mid-air as she tried to decide if she should check up on Steve and find out how he was or just wait until Mike got home and ask. She had already tried ringing Steve at home to see if he wanted some company, not wanting him to be alone but no one had answered the phone and knowing her friend as well as she did she knew he would head back to the station, probably with the faint hope that Mike would change his mind and allow him to work on the case. She needed to make sure that he was okay. Picking up the phone, she dialled the familiar number and only waited a few seconds before she heard the familiar voice answer. "Hey," she said softly, "How is your day going? I miss you…"

"Busy," he answered, before adding softly, "I miss you too, I'm hoping if I can get away from here early enough tonight that maybe we can go out somewhere for dinner, maybe a movie afterwards or back to my place…"

She laughed softly, blushing at his unspoken suggestion as she replied coyly, "Dinner and a movie sounds good."

"So now we have our dinner date set, why are you calling? Is it just because you are missing me so much you needed to hear my voice?" he teased.

"Ohh, definitely to hear your voice," She smiled before adding more quietly, "And also to check on Steve. Mike took him back to his place last night and this morning I can't reach him on the phone. And I was wondering…"

"He's here. He's in with Mike," He answered distractedly. She frowned as she heard Mike's raised and very angry voice in the background, although she knew the tone her father rarely used, she could not hear just what Mike was saying, before he rushed on, "Umm listen, Sweetheart, I will pick you up tonight. Love you. I've got to go…"

She heard the phone click loudly in her ear and she stared at the phone in her hand, before slowly hanging it up as she wondered if Mike had been yelling at Steve and if so, why?

xxxxxxx

Bumping shoulders with the angry young man who barged past him as he entered the San Francisco Homicide office, Matt Eppings glanced around the busy room. Spotting the office across the room, marked with the name of the homicide Lieutenant he had come to see, he hurried across to the door and knocked.

Closing the file on desk that had caused so much trouble, Mike looked up and frowned at the young man who had knocked on his door before telling him to come in.

Opening the door, Matt smiled and flashed his badge as he asked, "Lieutenant Stone?"

Mike nodded as the young detective entered.

"I'm Detective Eppings, Homicide, Bayview Police, Matt to my friends." The detective announced as he offered Mike his hand, "And I believe that a murder case you are investigating might be connected to one of my cases."

* * *

**Chapter 8**

* * *

Steve pulled up in front of a house in Potrero Hill. Ever since his talk with Wayne, he had been plagued by what the man said about his fiancée. Dianne was a drunk. Dianne was a partier. The picture Wayne painted disturbed Steve. He had seen the guy's rap sheet and knew he was not exactly the most trustworthy of men, but what if he had been right? What if Dianne did have this wild past that she never told Steve about? Would she have kept something like that from him?

It all had put many doubts about her in his head, and that bothered him immensely. He did not want his memory of her soured by some clown he had just met. In order to put his mind a bit at ease, he decided to ask someone who knew Dianne better than he did.

After knocking on the front door twice, Gail Harris answered to find the grieving inspector on her porch. She greeted him warmly with a hug and a few tears before escorting him into the house. After a few pleasantries and coffee, Steve got to the point of why he was there.

"You ever meet a guy named Wayne Jackson?" Steve asked his fiancee's best friend.

She nodded and set down her coffee cup.

"So, is it true? Dianne was dating this loser?"

Gail swallowed hard. "She was. On and off for a few years before she met you. How'd you find out about him?"

"She had a restraining order out on him. What did he do to her?"

She sighed. When Dianne started getting serious with Steve, she had made Gail promise not to bring up Wayne ever, no matter who asked. Even though Dianne was no longer living, Gail felt obligated to keep her promise. However, as she sat and looked at the sad and broken expression on her guest's face, she realized that Dianne wouldn't mind her telling Steve now. "He had a problem with booze. I suppose he was an alcoholic of sorts. Anyway, he was a mean drunk, and if Dianne ever said anything to him that set him off, he'd take out his anger on her."

Steve shook his head. "How long did this go on anyway?"

Gail shrugged. "A bit longer than it should have...but you know Dianne! She saw the good in everyone. The rest of us saw Wayne as a dangerous jerk; she saw him as a man with an illness. She always felt she could help him get better, so she stayed by his side through thick and thin. Even when he gave her bloody noses and black eyes, she'd say it was his illness making him do it. But alcoholics have to want to help themselves as well, and Wayne never wanted to get well. Dianne eventually gave up and walked away. He tried his damnedest to get her back, going as far as to show up at her house or work uninvited. Even then though, I had to talk her into getting the restraining order. She just never believed he...or anyone else...was bad."

Steve smiled and cringed at the same time. Her ability to see the best in everyone and everything was one of the many things that made him fall in love with her in the first place. He had also warned her about being too trusting and caring, but deep down, he saw it more as an asset than a fault. "Why didn't she tell me about him then? I mean, I could have protected her…"

"That's why she didn't say anything. She knew that if she told you the truth, you'd do something drastic, like beat him up or something. She didn't think Wayne was worth any trouble he could cause you. Plus, she told me that at one point he had threatened to kill any man she got close to. He was drunk at the time of course, but she still feared he'd make good on his threat. If he didn't know about you, and you didn't know about him...no one would get hurt. She was just being protective."

She stood up and took his empty coffee cup. "How'd you find out about him anyway?"

"I saw his jacket in my partner's office. I went and paid him a little visit. Not the smartest thing I've ever done."

"Do you think he did this?" Gail gasped.

Steve shook his head. "He has an alibi."

Gail looked almost disappointed as she went toward the kitchen to refill their coffees.

"Yeah," Steve quietly sighed even though he knew Gail couldn't hear him. He looked out the living room window and muttered, "Back to square one."

xxxxx

Nodding to the Bayview Homicide detective to take a seat, Mike frowned as he asked, "What murder case do you believe is connected to one of your cases? And why?"

"You put out an APB on an old large dark car, possibly a Ford Galaxie, being driven by a white male, in his thirties, roughly six feet tall, medium build. Wanted for questioning about the abduction, rape and murder of a young woman." Matt began, as he pulled out a teletype photo of the sketch drawing of the man the old homeless man had described as Dianne's possible abductor that had accompanied the APB, smoothing it out before he placed it on Mike's desk, before he pulled out a second sheet of paper from his pocket and placed a similar police composite sketch of the same man beside the first drawing. "I have the feeling that we are looking for the same man, except in my case, where we he is our prime suspect in the disappearances and possible murders of at least five young women and the rape of a sixth, he was driving a late model red Barracuda." Pointing to the only difference in the sketches, Matt continued grimly, "And he had a moustache."

Staring at the two composite drawings, Mike glanced up at the detective seated in front of him, "Five or more disappearances and one rape. One of the women managed to get away?"

"Julie Wellings, an eighteen-year-old student whom he abducted as she went for a run alone, he raped and tortured her for several hours before she was able to get away."

"Did she say where she was held?" Mike asked as he sat down behind his desk.

"She initially told us that she was taken to some type of one roomed cabin surrounded by forest on the shore of the bay. She was found struggling to stay afloat by the crew of a dinner cruise boat in the middle of the bay. The doctors said that it was possible she had been in the water for an hour or more. With the injuries she had sustained and that length of time in the water, it was a miracle she even survived. But she so terrified by what she endured, she refused to co-operate with the investigation, and we lost contact with Julie after she moved in the middle of the night and left no forwarding address. As I said the poor kid was terrified."

"So how did you get the description of her attacker and the car he was driving?"

"A woman who had witnessed that abduction came forward, after Julie was found in the bay." Matt shrugged in disgust as he spat out angrily, "Never reported seeing the abduction until after Julie was found fighting for her life in the bay and only because she was scared if someone else came forward and mentioned she had also witnessed the abduction, she might get charged with something."

"Protecting her own interests." Mike growled.

"Aren't they always?" Matt agreed before cocking his head at Mike and adding, "So when I saw your APB and the sketch of your suspect, I knew your case was connected to mine."

Mike nodded in agreement as he opened the file in front of him and pushed it across to Matt to peruse as he brought him up to speed on Dianne's case. "Our victim is a Dianne Mackenzie, a twenty - four-year-old college student who had just gotten engaged hours before her disappearance…" Mike hesitated for a moment before he took a deep breath and continued, "to my partner, Steve Keller."

Matt's head snapped up to look at Mike as he asked softly, "Your partner?"

Mike nodded before swallowing hard as he continued, "We know that Steve dropped her back to her apartment a little after one in the morning. After he had left, she received a phone call from an ex-boyfriend who had been picked up earlier in the evening on a DUI and was demanding that she come and bail him out."

"Did she?"

"No, instead she called a friend, who was aware of a history of domestic violence between the two of them and asked if she could go to the friend's apartment to stay. The friend agreed but when she didn't turn up the friend thought she might have changed her mind and gone to see the ex-boyfriend instead. We believe that she decided to walk the four blocks alone to her friend's apartment. We have a witness who saw the suspect in the dark sedan, which he believes could have been a Ford Galaxie pull up beside her as she was walking along the street and start talking to her before she reluctantly got in the car with him and they drove away."

"Did the witness see a gun?"

"A gun?"

"Julie mentioned that the suspect forced her into the car by threatening her with a gun."

"No gun was seen." Mike answered as he rose from his chair and began to pace the room, "But that could explain one of the questions that has been nagging me about why she went with him."

Matt nodded and remained silent as Mike continued, "She was found floating in the bay just after midday yesterday. Time of death was determined to have occurred and hour or two earlier, the ME believes she might have been knocked unconscious just prior to entering the water. Cause of death was drowning but she had been raped and severely beaten."

"She must have tried to get away from him." Matt breathed.

"We managed to work out an approximate area for where the murder had taken place by approximate time the body had been in the water and by using the tides and the currents around the area where the body was found and by backtracking the information we located an abandoned one room cabin in a deserted, heavily forested area just on the shores of the bay."

"You found the cabin?" Matt asked excitedly. "Are you sure?"

"No question." Mike answered as he turned and headed towards his office door as he added, "We found evidence that not only Dianne had been held there but also other women. In fact, I am about to head down to the forensic lab to see what they've got. If you want to join me."

* * *

**Chapter 9**

* * *

After his visit with Gail, Steve drove around town aimlessly for over an hour. No place he could go felt all that comfortable, especially his apartment. The only place he felt he could stand was work, but he knew he would just be relegated to typing up reports again, so he drove around some more until that got to be too much to bear as well. Eventually he gave up and went back downtown. Maybe he could find something to keep him busy and keep his mind off Dianne.

He parked his Porsche and wandered into the building. He was in no hurry, and really had no specific destination in mind. Figuring he would end up in Homicide eventually, he took to wandering the halls of the first floor before slowly making his way to the elevators. Before he could get there, he saw Mike and a younger man heading his way. Not in the mood to see his partner at the moment, Steve ducked into an alcove to hide until they passed. The little bit of conversation he heard as they passed indicated that they were headed toward the forensic lab. He heard mentions of women's clothing and blood. Just hearing those two words sent him into a dark place as he thought about Dianne's last moments again. If Mike and this stranger were indeed talking about her case, they must have found the crime scene. He had to fight off the urge to follow the men to learn what they had found, but one thing he knew for sure - he did not want another Mike Stone lecture.

Once the men passed, Steve came out of hiding and headed toward the elevator. Two uniformed officers were standing by the elevators having a conversation while they waited for their car to arrive. It was not a loud conversation, but it was above a whisper and loud enough for Steve to overhear.

"You should have seen this crime scene. It was something else," the blond one said.

"What, like bodies everywhere? I saw that in 'Nam every day. Stopped bothering me long ago."

"No, Man ... this was worse. It was in this old cabin that some derelict is using to kidnap and rape women or something. There was women's clothing all over the place, and not just from one or two women. Oh, but there weren't any pants. Do you know how many pairs of underwear we found?"

The dark-haired officer gave him a curious look. "This sounds more like cheap pornography. What makes it so disturbing to you?"

"Well, for starters, there was a bunch of jewelry, ropes…"

"Like I said...kinky."

"Bloody sheets...many of the blouses were ripped. That sound like consensual sex to you?" the blond asked.

The other officer shook his head.

"I don't know. The whole place just seemed eerie. I could almost hear the victims screaming for help, like the walls absorbed their pleas. So many women suffered...who the hell even knows what. And then I hear that one of them was the fiancee of an inspector? Hits close to home, you know?"

The dark-haired man nodded. "Where was this cabin?"

The blond officer described the area while Steve made a mental note. He knew if the cabin was a crime scene, he'd likely never get close enough to it, but maybe he could learn other things about the place. He had confidential informants all over the city, and many of them owed him favors.

xxxxx

Pulling the plaster cast shoe imprint closer, Charlie reached for his magnifying glass and hovered it over the distinctive tread, studying each line and valley carefully before he placed down the magnifying glass and reached for the book laying on the table nearby. Quickly flicking through the pages until he found the page he was looking for. Studying the page closely, for several moments, he placed the book back down on the table and picked up the magnifying glass again and began to carefully study the tread again. A small smile of excitement tugged at his lips as each line and valley of the imprint matched the shoe tread pattern in the book. It wasn't much but at least it was something he could tell Mike Stone, when the Homicide Lieutenant marched into his lab, demanding to know what he had been able to discover from the bags of evidence that had been delivered to his lab less than two hours before.

"What have you got for us, Charlie?"

Charlie jumped in surprise, almost dropping the magnifying glass as he heard Stone's gruff demand behind him. Spinning around, he watched as Mike and who he assumed was another homicide Inspector hurry across to join him at the examination table.

Quickly making the introductions between Matt and Charlie, Mike asked again, "So what have you got for me?"

"I've just started examining the evidence," Charlie answered as he turned back to the table and nodded towards the bags of blood stained items of clothing neatly laid out at one end of the table and the small strands of the rope carefully mounted in the slide sitting in the microscope, with the small plastic evidence bags each contains scrapes of material and the small buttons waiting to be examined lying next to it. "But from what I have managed to examine so far I can tell you that there were several different blood types staining the sheets, from at least eight or nine different individuals. I suspect I will find the same sort of results when I examine the rope."

"Eight or nine victims?" Mike breathed.

"At least," Charlie nodded as he glanced in annoyance at Matt who was picking up each individually bagged item of clothing and carefully studying each, before he returned his attention back to Mike. "And your killer's blood type is O negative, I was able to find some reasonably fresh semen on the sheets."

"O negative?"

"O negative," Charlie confirmed before he nodded towards the plaster cast he had been examining when they had entered and smiled, "he also wears a size 9 pair of Nike Cortez with a very distinctive wear pattern in the tread of the left shoe"

"Nike Cortez shoes?" Matt frowned, looking up from the bagged dress he held in his hands. "Are you sure?"

"I just double checked the tread pattern, there's no doubt he wears Nike Cortez shoes." Charlie answered a little defensively.

Looking between the two men, Mike frowned, certain that the two of them knew something about these particular brand of shoes that he didn't, "Nike Cortez, what's so special about Nike Cortez shoes?"

"They have just only come onto the market. I doubt that many have been sold yet." Matt answered, "And if our perp is a local…"

"The chances are they were sold locally." Mike finished.

Matt nodded before he handed Mike the bag he held in his hand, "And I think this proves we are after the same guy. I'm pretty certain I can match up a piece of clothing to each of my missing women. " Waving towards the bagged clothes still on the table, he sighed and added slowly, "But there are clothes here that don't match with any of my cases. We have more victims out there."

XXXXXXX

Steve sat in his car on the corner of Polk and Hayes and waited. After sitting there for over half an hour, a small white man in a ratty baseball cap and green flannel shirt came walking up from behind. Steve got out of the car and approached the man.

"Oh, Keller. You're not exactly who I was hoping to see today," the man complained.

"Or any other day, huh, Sonny?" Steve replied.

"Got me there. I haven't done anything, so lemme guess...I need to pay a debt," Sonny suggested.

"You've always got an ear to the streets. I need to know if you've heard about a man snatching women off the streets and taking them to a hidden cabin on the bay shore."

Running his hand through his greasy hair, Sonny cocked his head. "And if I might be able to tell ya somethin', what's in it for me?"

Smiling coldly, Steve roughly pushed the smaller man hard against the wall, holding him there as he growled, "How about I don't run you in for that little bag of smack you have in your pocket?"

Swallowing hard at the homicide Inspector's intimidating behavior, Sonny nodded, his bravado vanishing as he licked his lips and glanced around once more before he answered.

"Talk!" Steve demanded, threatening as he stepped a little closer.

Shrugging out of Steve's hold, Sonny smiled as he smoothed down his shirt. "Hey easy, Cop. I was just having some fun with ya. Can't you take a joke no more?" Looking around to make sure no one was watching them, he said softly, "So you're looking for some dude who is into grabbing chicks off the streets and taking them back to some cabin? I might have heard a whisper or two." Nodding his head, he admitted, "Yeah, I heard about the dude, heard he likes to grab young pretty women who are walking alone at night. He's not interested in the usual whores who are on the street. He prefers them innocent and not street wise."

"You hear where this dude might live, where he hangs out...maybe what he looks like or what he drives?"

Sonny folded his arms over his chest and kept looking around.

"I makin' you nervous?" Steve asked him, annoyed with the man.

"Nah, not really. This dude makes me nervous."

"You've seen him?"

Sonny shook his head. "Just from what I've heard. Sounds like that Freeway Killer dude. You know the one, he has been in the news, killing all those women. I bet he is real charming on the outside, evil as the devil on the inside. But this guy… this guy is even more brazen, he doesn't take them off the freeway where no one is around, he's taking them off the city streets like he doesn't care if anyone sees him. Always in the dark they say."

"Is that all you got?" Steve asked, frustrated that he really hadn't learned a lot more than he already knew.

"Dude drives some big ol' car...dark I think. Hard to tell in the dark. He's about six feet, average. Honest, Man, I don't know anything else. I just heard his hunting ground is Potrero mostly. Bernal Heights or Bayview maybe."

Steve nodded and stepped away from his informant, walking back toward his car.

"We cool?" Sonny shouted.

"Just keep your ears open and call me if you hear anything," Steve shouted back.

XXXXXX

Closing the door to the forensic lab closed behind him, Matt turned to Mike and asked, "So want me to start hitting the shoe stores?"

"I'll get one of my guys working on that," Mike answered as they walked towards the elevator before he added, "I want you to fill me in on all your missing women's cases and let's see if we can find your missing rape victim, what was her name?"

"Julie, Julie Wellings."

"Let's see if we can find her and if she has had a change of heart about talking with us."

"So, we are working the case together?" Matt asked as they stepped into the elevator and Mike hit the button to take them back up to squad room. "What about your partner?"

Mike sighed as he felt the elevator begin to rise, not quite ready enough to discuss anything about what was going on with Steve with a stranger, even if that stranger was a fellow Inspector, instead he asked, "Are you sure some of that clothing didn't belong to your missing women?"

If Matt noticed Mike's reluctance to talk about his partner and his partner's role in the case, he did not press the question, instead he answered, "I gone over these cases so often, I can tell you in my sleep what each woman was wearing, even down to the minute details of the color of their underwear."

* * *

**Chapter 10**

* * *

Steve was right; he couldn't get anywhere near the cabin. The whole place was taped off, and there were still crime scene techs wandering in and out. Any personal inspection would have to wait for another time. Instead, Steve drove off to talk to a couple more of his informants. From them, he got the same answers. No one knew who the guy was, just that he grabbed high-class looking women off the streets at night. The last man he talked to had heard a rumor that not all the victims were dead.

"What do you mean? How many are there?" he had asked.

"Don't know," the informant answered. "Word is they're all dead or missing except for one."

"Anything about her? Name, description?"

"Uh...something that starts wit think. Julia, Julie, June...somethin' like that. But word is, she knows who did it, and he knows she knows, so she's in the wind."

"Could be after her again…" Steve muttered.

"Could be, could be. Sounds like a dude you don't mess with."

Steve nodded slightly, thanked the man, and headed back to his car. His first thought was to go back to the station and check for missing person's reports. If what he'd heard so far was true, that this guy only snatched women who didn't look like street walkers, then someone out there would be missing this girl...and maybe all the others.

Xxxx

Pulling out a photo of a young browned haired, young smiling woman from the file, Matt pushed it across the desk for Mike to study before he silently withdrew a second photo from the file, showing the same young woman beaten and bruised, the haunted look in her eyes told more than words could ever say. Leaning back in his chair, Matt sighed as he began, "Julie Wellings. She had only turned eighteen two weeks before her abduction, rape and torture at the hands of a man whom we suspect is responsible for the disappearances of at least six, but by the evidence I saw in the Forensic Lab today, possibly ten young women in the Bay area." Removing another sheet of paper from the case folder and passing it to Mike to study, Matt continued quietly. "Julie had decided to go for a run alone, late at night, to take a break from studying for an exam and to clear her head. She said as she was running a man in a red car pulled up beside her and the driver offered her a lift. But when she refused and turned to jog away, he got out of the car and grabbed her, threatening her with a gun if she screamed or didn't get into the car with him."

Mike nodded silently as he read the same information that Matt was telling him from the victim's statement that she had given in the first initial interview after being found.

"She was scared, so she got into the car." Matt shook his head, "Poor kid, must have been terrified as he drove her out of the city and into a densely wooded area, somewhere north of the city. She must have thought she was going to die." Pulling the composite photo from the folder, Matt laid it on the table in front of him and stared at it as he spoke, "She was able to give us a basic description of him, white male, in his thirties, roughly six feet tall, medium build with a mustache. He had ordered her to close her eyes and not look where they were driving and she was so terrified that if she did not obey he would kill her in the car, she did as she was told but she believed they had traveled north out of the city to an isolated cabin, somewhere in the wooded areas on the shore of the bay. He then forced her out of the car and made her walk down a steep embankment to the cabin, where she said he ordered her inside and tied her to the bed where over the next several hours he stripped, tortured, beat and raped her repeatedly."

"How did she manage to get away?"

"She said that over the course of the rest of the night and most of the next day, between the assaults, she managed to loosen the ropes and she waited until he left her alone in the cabin for a couple of minutes before she worked up the courage to slip the ropes and escape." Swallowing hard, Matt forced himself to verbalize what was written in his case notes, "He caught her on the shore near the bay where they struggled. She said during the struggle he picked up a rock and struck her across the head. She fell into the water, probably that's what saved her life. She was found struggling to stay afloat by the crew of a dinner cruise boat in the middle of the bay about an hour or so later. She was lucky, with the injuries she had sustained and that length of time in the water, it was a miracle she even survived, even made more amazing because even with those things against her, half an hour longer and it would have been too dark for anyone to have seen her in the water at all."

"So, what happened?" Mike asked frowning as he placed Julie's first victim's statement onto his desk and looked across that the Bayview Homicide Inspector.

"At first, she reluctantly opened up and told us what happened." Matt answered, leaning back in the chair as he rubbed his hair over his head, in the same unconscious action that Steve did when he was feeling stressed and defeated, "But then she clammed up on us, almost as if something frightened her." Matt shrugged, "Maybe she was scared of the publicity, maybe she was scared that he would come back and finish the job, or maybe she just didn't trust us, I mean, man after what she went through who could blame her. She stopped talking to us, totally refused to even co-operate and a couple of weeks after she was released from the hospital, she disappeared. Left no forwarding address with us or her landlord."

"Are you sure she disappeared willingly?" Mike asked.

"Do you think she was grabbed again?" Matt asked, leaning forward in his chair as he looked at Mike, "No I don't think she was, I think she just wanted to disappear and get away what happened, to try and put it behind her. There were no signs of violence in her apartment and a neighbor saw her get into a taxi and leave with a suitcase. Our investigation traced her to New York and after that we lost all trace of her." Waving his hand, he added, "I think Julie is out there somewhere, trying hard to pretend that nothing happened and probably scared that one day he…or us…will turn up on the doorstep of her new life and drag her back into the nightmare she wants to escape."

Looking across at the stressed Bayview Inspector, Mike nodded, agreeing with Matt's assessment of why Julie Wellings probably had run before he glanced down at his watch, surprised to find it was so late. Suddenly feeling as drained and as tired as the young Inspector sitting across from him looked, Mike gathered the sheets of paper and photos and placed them into the case folder before he closed it and looked across at Matt. "How about we call it a night and start fresh in the morning. We can check out her friends and neighbors, maybe one of them has heard from her since she left." He smiled at the Bayview detective, as he rose from his chair and grabbed his hat and jacket, "But for now how about we grab something to eat. I know a great little pizza place where we can grab a bit to eat."

"Sounds good." Matt smiled as he slowly rose from his seat and followed Mike out of the office.

XXXX

Since it was getting late in the day, and Steve did not want to go back to the station and risk running into Mike again, he decided to force himself to go home. He was going to have to get used to the place without Dianne sooner or later, and now was as good a time as any. Pulling up to the curb in front of his house, he noticed someone sitting on the steps that led to his apartment. Getting out of his car, he noticed it was Jeannie.

"About time you got home!" she scolded.

"Nice to see you too. You do realize I have a job, right?"

"Yes, but I honestly figured you'd be here. How can you just throw yourself into work like nothing happened?"

Steve, standing at the bottom of the stairs, glared at her. "Don't act like you know how I feel, okay?"

He started walking past her, but she grabbed onto his leg to stop him. "I'm sorry. Really, I am. I'm just trying to understand your grief, that's all."

"You don't need to understand it," he snapped back, but he did not try to continue up the stairs.

"Yes, I do! We're friends, and friends help each other through tough times. Look, I know you're the type to keep everything inside and try to deal with it alone, but don't do that this time, huh?"

"I'm not keeping it all…" Jeannie cut him off. "Yes you are. Steve, she was my friend too. I miss her just as much as you do...just for a different reason. But I know how you feel all the same! We should be grieving together, not apart!"

"I'm doing just fine, thank you very much."

"Oh really? Are you grieving?"

Steve glared at Jeannie even more. "Just because I'm not sitting here crying on your shoulder does not mean that Dianne's death isn't eating me up inside!" he barked. "It's killing me! It's killing me that I can't be the one to get her justice! It's killing me that I have to get justice for her at all! I should have been there to protect her! She should still be here…" He trailed off as he sunk into the brick steps beneath him. Putting his face in his hands, he let a few tears escape.

Jeannie put her arms around him, laying her head on his shoulder and letting a few tears go herself. After a moment of silence, Jeannie asked Steve another question she was sure he was not going to like. "Why haven't you been over to see the Mackenzie's? They want to see you, get your input on funeral arrangements."

Steve scoffed. "Sure they do. I bet they'd just love to see me, tell me what a great guy I am for letting their daughter get murdered."

"They do not think that. They honestly wish you would come by. They told me so this afternoon when I went to take them a casserole."

Steve turned his head and looked at Jeannie. "What am I supposed to say to them? When I asked Dianne to marry me, I promised that I would protect her for the rest of her life and what happens? Less than twelve hours later, she's dead. How can I possibly face her family, the people I completely failed?"

Jeannie sighed. "They don't think that, Steve. They don't think that at all. They're only hurt by the fact that you seem to be shutting them out. I reassured them that it wasn't just them. You're shutting everyone out."

"Oh, you just reassured them that I am shutting everyone out, did you?" Jeannie jumped in surprise at the heat of Steve's anger as he rose to his feet and glared at her. "And what makes you the expert of how I am feeling and what I am doing?"

"Steve!" Jeanie gasped, horrified that her words had hurt him so much, "That's not…"

"How the hell do you know what I am feeling?" Steve shouted, "How dare you assume that you do! I promised to protect her, to love her. I promised her that we would live the rest of our lives together and now she is dead, and I never kept a single promise I made to her that night."

"Steve, I never meant…" Jeannie whispered, as she stood up and took a step towards him.

"Go!" Steve said softly as he pushed her away, "Please just go! Leave me alone."

"Steve, please…" Jeannie pleaded, tears rolling down her face as Steve turned and walked up the stairs to his front door, leaving her standing alone on the stairs staring after him as he unlocked his front door and stepped into his apartment before closing the door firmly behind him.

* * *

**Chapter 11**

* * *

Even though it was too early in the evening for most adults to be in bed, Steve was laying on his, staring up at the ceiling. But he wasn't trying to relax; he was trying to remember names of other San Francisco inspectors who owed him favors. He didn't want to risk going back to the station and getting caught looking through missing persons' reports for any Julia's, Julie's, or June's, and since the woman might have been from anywhere in the Bay Area, he wondered if he couldn't get someone else to find his information.

He rolled over and grabbed a notepad and a pen off his nightstand, jotted down a few names, then looked over the list to determine who would have the best access to his needed information. He picked a name and grabbed the phone, telling the operator who he wanted to ring. His first choice was a no-go, so he tried his number two choice. That one was a possible, which wasn't good enough for Steve, so he continued down the list. His fourth call was a success. The inspector told him he could get a hold of that information easily and should have it by the next morning.

Suddenly feeling tired, Steve slept a bit more contently, glad that maybe he was finally about to identify Dianne's killer and put the whole ugly mess behind him.

XXXXX

Pouring himself a morning cup of coffee, Steve snatched up the phone as it rang. It was his inspector friend with the information on his missing. Before he'd fallen asleep the night before, Steve worried that he would end up with a long list of possible. Today was his lucky day. Only one missing person fit the description of the crime committed and had a name that started with Ju...Julie Wellings. She lived in an apartment in Bernal Heights, one of the places Sonny had said was her attacker's hunting ground. Thanking the inspector, Steve slammed down the phone before he turned and bolted out the door, leaving his coffee to become cold tar on his kitchen counter.

XXXXX

Grabbing his notebook with the small list of shops that had sold the new Nike Cortez shoes since their release less than a month before, Lee rose from his seat and hurried across to Mike's office, knocking before he entered. He paused for a moment, uncertain if he should give his report in front of the Bayview inspector who was sitting in front of Mike's desk, softly talking on Mike's phone while jotting down his own notes.

Looking up from the file he was reading Mike cocked his head towards Lee's notebook as he asked, "What have you got for me?"

"Not much, I'm afraid Mike." Lee answered as he again glanced towards Matt before he looked back at Mike and continued. "Only five shops in the Bay area have so far stocked Nike Cortez shoes and only two of them have sold a pair of size 9 Nike Cortez shoes. Both sales were cash sales."

Hanging up the phone, Matt sighed as he looked guiltily up at lee before he looked across at Mike, "Umm, one of those sales would have been mine. I'm afraid I'm a bit of a Nike fan." He sheepishly admitted as he lifted up his foot and showed them the Nike runner on his foot and blushed slightly before he shrugged and added. "My partner likes to tease me about it. He claims I have a bit of a shoe fetish."

"Well that explains the sale in Bayview." Lee smiled.

"Where was the second sale?" Matt asked as he lowered his leg back to the floor and sat up straighter on the chair.

"The Emporium, on Market Street." Lee answered as he opened his notebook and glanced at his notes, "The clerk doesn't remember the sale or who brought the shoes, but the shop receipts shows it was a cash sale."

"It was a long shot anyway," Mike sighed, disappointed, as he looked back up at Lee. "Any luck with the cabin?"

Lee shook his head, "Records show the cabin was built at the turn of the century and its owner, an old recluse named Neil Mann, died in 1948 at the ripe old age of eighty- seven. He had no known living relatives. The cabin has been abandoned ever since."

Leaning forward to open the thick folder, that was sitting in front of him on Mike's desk, Matt glanced up at Lee before looking across at Mike as he said quietly. "I couldn't sleep last night, so I went back to Bayview and grabbed all our case notes on our missing women and compared the clothing they were last seen wearing with the clothing in the lab. And I put the faces to the clothing you found in the cabin." He removed a photo of a young smiling woman with light brown hair and placed it on the desk between them, "Mary Hopkins, age twenty-two, disappeared from Bayview eighteen months ago after taking her dog for a walk late one night." Placing a second photo of another young brown hair woman, he continued, "Susan Tanner, aged sixteen, last seen by her parents, late one night about fourteen months ago when she left their home after an argument about a boy she wanted to date, initially we considered her a run-away, we added her to our list of missing women." Pulling out a third photo of another young, brown haired, smiling woman and placing it with the other two photos, Matt continued. "Mikala Young, aged nineteen, disappeared eight months ago, after going for a late-night run by herself after her friend decided not to go." Removing three more photos. All showing the faces of young, light brown-haired women, Matt laid them out beside the other three photos and pointed at each one individually as he continued his report, "Tracy Ingliss, aged twenty-one, disappeared five months ago after leaving a party. A friend was worried about her walking alone at such a late hour and tried to catch up with her. The friend told us she never managed to catch Tracy, instead she saw Tracy get into a red car. The witness was only able to give us a very general description of the man."

"I bet the description matches with our suspect." Mike murmured as he studied the photos.

Matt pointed to the fifth photo, "Ellen Davidson, the youngest of our missing women and our first. Just fourteen years old. She disappeared Halloween, two years ago, after sneaking out of her home to go to a party less than three blocks away. Her parents had sent her to her room about ten pm after refusing her requests to go to the party. When her mom went to check on her less than half an hour later, she discovered Ellen's window was open and Ellen had left. A friend confirmed that Ellen had been planning to sneak out to attend the party if her parents didn't let her go." Placing a finger on the sixth photo of another young women with light brown hair, Matt sighed and simply stated, "Our last missing woman and the only one who we know has returned, Julie Wellings." Mike nodded as he studied the photos as Matt added, "Whoever this guy is we know that he is very particular when he goes hunting for his victims. He likes them young, with light brown hair and he enjoys grabbing them when they are walking or running alone at night."

"And we know his hunting ground seems to be extending across the city." Mike finished as he looked up at Matt across the desk.

"Yeah." Matt agreed slowly before he continued. "We knew we had a problem with so many disappearances and with the similarities between all the missing women. We suspected we had a possible predator on our hands. We tried setting up several stake outs to lure him out, used one of our woman police officers who fitted our suspect's preferences, but he didn't take the bait. It was like he knew our every move before we even did, and then when Julie escaped… She was our only link to the bastard and then when she ran…" Matt slammed his fist on the desk in frustration.

Standing up and grabbing his coat and hat, Mike ordered softly, "Well let's go and chat to her friends, family and neighbors. Maybe one of them will be able to tell us where she disappeared to."

"Do you want me to come too?" Lee asked as he and Matt followed Mike out of the office.

Mike hesitated, before telling Matt he would meet him at the elevator. He waited until Matt headed towards the squad room door before he turned back to Lee. "No, I want you to get together with Charlie and try and trace down the fingerprints and other evidence that come from the cabin, but first I want you to see if you can find Steve. I tried to call him this morning, but he isn't answering his phone."

"Will do, Mike." Lee nodded as Mike turned and hurried out of the squad room.

XXXXX

The complex was more like condominiums, with their front doors on the outside and most facing a central courtyard. Steve wandered into the courtyard looking for Unit 135. He found it, but instead of knocking on that door, he knocked on Unit 134 instead. If Julie was in the wind, he doubted she would be hiding out at home.

An older man answered the door of Unit 134. Steve introduced himself and flashed his badge. "I was wondering if you could tell me anything about the tenant in 135. My information has the tenant as a Julie Wellings?"

The man nodded. "That's right. Is this about her disappearance?"

"Partially. A Missing Person's report was filed on July 16 of last year. Do you remember seeing her around that time?

"Not much. Poor thing came home after she'd been in the hospital and barricaded herself in. My wife and I would try to take her food and check on her, but it was like pulling teeth just to get her to open the door."

"How long before she was reported missing was this?"

The man stood and thought for a moment. "Oh, a couple weeks I'd say. She wasn't back too long before she took off for good."

"Took off? You mean on her own?"

"Well, that's what we assumed. One day she was here and then next her place was cleaned out. That wouldn't happen if foul play was involved, would it?"

Steve shrugged. "Did you see any people around, moving out her furniture or anything?"

The man shook his head. "The only people I ever saw around were her mother and father and other neighbors."

"What about that younger man?" a female voice asked from the back of the condominium. The man turned around and saw his wife walking toward the door. He then introduced her to Steve.

"What can you tell me about this man?" Steve asked her.

"I'd never seen him before, and I knew he wasn't a relative."

"He was probably just a boyfriend. She probably ran off with him to try and forget what happened to her," the man countered.

She shook her head. "No, she didn't have a boyfriend at the time, and I'd seen all her exes. This man was new. And I swear, while he was there - which wasn't very long - that they were arguing. I could hear it through the wall."

"Could you hear what they were arguing about?" Steve asked.

"No, sorry. But it was only a day or two before she was gone for good." Steve asked her if she could describe the mystery man.

She went on to describe half the twenty to thirty year old men in San Francisco, but it was something more to go on than he'd had before.

"And she didn't say anything before she left?"

The couple shook their heads. "She was just scared. I think she was afraid whoever attacked her would find her and try again," the man added.

Steve nodded. "Thank you so much for your help. Say, if any more inspectors come around asking questions, don't tell them anything. There are a couple men who are trying to get information to use against Julie, and if they succeed, we may never find her or her attacker. I would really like her to be able to come home, you know? So, I would very much appreciate it if you didn't tell them anything you just told me."

Both the man and his wife nodded and agreed to what Steve had asked. They loved Julie like a daughter and wanted her to come back to San Francisco. Steve simply wanted to be the first one to get to Dianne's killer.

* * *

**Chapter 12**

* * *

The complex was more like condominiums, with their front doors on the outside and most facing a central courtyard. Steve wandered into the courtyard looking for Unit 135. He found it, but instead of knocking on that door, he knocked on Unit 134 instead. If Julie was in the wind, he doubted she would be hiding out at home.

An older man answered the door of Unit 134. Steve introduced himself and flashed his badge. "I was wondering if you could tell me anything about the tenant in 135. My information has the tenant as a Julie Wellings?"

The man nodded. "That's right. Is this about her disappearance?"

"Partially. A Missing Person's report was filed on July 16 of last year. Do you remember seeing her around that time?

"Not much. Poor thing came home after she'd been in the hospital and barricaded herself in. My wife and I would try to take her food and check on her, but it was like pulling teeth just to get her to open the door."

"How long before she was reported missing was this?"

The man stood and thought for a moment. "Oh, a couple weeks I'd say. She wasn't back too long before she took off for good."

"Took off? You mean on her own?"

"Well, that's what we assumed. One day she was here and then next her place was cleaned out. That wouldn't happen if foul play was involved, would it?"

Steve shrugged. "Did you see any people around, moving out her furniture or anything?"

The man shook his head. "The only people I ever saw around were her mother and father and other neighbors."

"What about that younger man?" a female voice asked from the back of the condominium. The man turned around and saw his wife walking toward the door. He then introduced her to Steve.

"What can you tell me about this man?" Steve asked her.

"I'd never seen him before, and I knew he wasn't a relative."

"He was probably just a boyfriend. She probably ran off with him to try and forget what happened to her," the man countered.

She shook her head. "No, she didn't have a boyfriend at the time, and I'd seen all her exes. This man was new. And I swear, while he was there - which wasn't very long - that they were arguing. I could hear it through the wall."

"Could you hear what they were arguing about?" Steve asked.

"No, sorry. But it was only a day or two before she was gone for good." Steve asked her if she could describe the mystery man.

She went on to describe half the twenty to thirty year old men in San Francisco, but it was something more to go on than he'd had before.

"And she didn't say anything before she left?"

The couple shook their heads. "She was just scared. I think she was afraid whoever attacked her would find her and try again," the man added.

Steve nodded. "Thank you so much for your help. Say, if any more inspectors come around asking questions, don't tell them anything. There are a couple men who are trying to get information to use against Julie, and if they succeed, we may never find her or her attacker. I would really like her to be able to come home, you know, so I would very much appreciate it if you didn't tell them anything you just told me."

Both the man and his wife nodded and agreed to what Steve had asked. They loved Julie like a daughter and wanted her to come back to San Francisco. Steve simply wanted to be the first one to get to Dianne's killer.

Xxxxx

Stepping into the apartment complex courtyard, Mike glanced at the numbers on the apartment doors, searching for the number he was looking for- 134. Walking past the drawn curtains of the silent apartment next door, "Julie's apartment." Matt tilted his head towards the closed door as he told Mike softly, "We searched it thoroughly after she fled, hoping we might find something, anything that would tell us where she had gone, but there was nothing, not a solitary clue. It was like she had simply vanished into thin air." He sighed as they reached the closed door of the adjacent apartment and knocked on the door.

"Hold on, I'm coming."

Pulling out his badge from his pocket as he heard the sound of shuffling feet approaching the door, Mike held it up as the door slowly opened. "Mr Truman?" he asked politely. The elderly man nodded silently as Mike held up his badge and police identification as he introduced himself, "I'm Lieutenant Stone, San Francisco Homicide," and nodding towards Matt who was also holding up his badge and police ID, continued. "And this is Inspector Eppings, Bayview Homicide, we were wondering if we could have a quick word with you about one of your neighbors, Julie Wellings."

"Ohh yes, of course, But please call me Harlan, Mr Truman was my father's name." the older man smiled and stepped aside as he allowed Mike and Matt to enter before closing the door behind them and ushering them further into the small living room where a small, grey haired woman, placed the book down that she was reading and rose from the sofa where she was sitting as they entered. "This is my wife, Gladys," he told them as he reached for her hand and squeezed it reassuringly as he told her, "These two gentlemen are police officers, Gladys, Lieutenant Stone and Inspector Eppings, from Homicide. They want to ask us some questions about Julie."

"Oh dear," the older woman gasped as she stared wide eyed at Mike and Matt, "Homicide, has something happened to Julie?"

"No, no," Mike rushed to reassure her. "We are just trying to locate Julie; we believe that she may be able to help us with a case we are investigating."

Gladys noisily released her breath as she murmured, "Thank the Lord, I thought…" She shook her head before she smiled and turned towards the overstuffed chairs arranged around a round coffee table sitting in front of a television, "I'm sorry, how rude of me, please take a seat but I'm not sure how much help we can be"

"We would just like to ask you a few questions," Matt smiled as he settled down on one of the chairs, "about the night Julie went missing and if you have heard from Julie since."

Sitting on the sofa with his wife by his side, Harlan frowned, "As my wife said, I'm not sure just how much help we can be, I'm afraid our memories aren't as good as they used to be."

Sitting down, Mike asked. "We were wondering if you can tell us anything about the days leading up to or the night Julie left. Did you see any strangers hanging around, or maybe heard something unusual?"

The older man's frown deepened. "Nooo," he answered slowly, "Nothing or no one I can think of."

"What about you, Mrs Truman?"

Reaching for her husband's hand, Gladys bit her lip and shook her head, "No, not that I can remember. I mean it was over a year ago."

Leaning forward, Matt frowned, "Are you sure? Just after Julie left you told my partner that you had seen Julie leave in a cab with a suitcase."

Gladys shifted uncomfortable and licked her lips as she glanced quickly at her husband before she looked at the young inspector who was watching her closely and forced a small smile. "Ahh, yes, that's right, I remember now, the night Julie left I did see her get in a cab with a suitcase."

"About what time was that?" Mike asked.

"It was late, maybe midnight, it could have been later. The only reason I noticed was I had gotten up to get a drink of water when I noticed the cab's headlights through the front window," The older woman answered. "It was the last time I saw her. Not that I could blame her for wanting to leave after what had happened to the poor girl. I mean she was grabbed just around the corner."

Harlan nodded in agreement as he turned towards his wife and asked, "Wasn't it a couple of days later that her parents came and took all her furniture?"

"It was." Gladys looked back at Mike and added, "I'm afraid that was the last time we saw or heard from Julie. I don't think she even left a forwarding address with anyone." Rising from her seat, clearly indicating that the conversation was over, "I'm sorry that we can't be any more help, officers." Gladys smiled as the three men also stood up and she ushered Mike and Matt towards the front door.

"Thank you for your time." Mike smiled as he stepped outside with Matt close behind him.

"I'm sorry that we can't be any more help." Harlan told the Homicide Lieutenant as Mike and Matt turn and walk away, as Gladys peeked over his shoulder.

Closing the door behind the two officers, Harlan turned and looked at his wife, Gladys was pale and shaking as she stared wide eyed at him.

"It's him." She whispered fearfully.

"Who?"

"The man I heard Julie arguing with the night she left."

"Are you sure?" Harlan frowned as he glanced towards the closed door before looking back at his terrified wife.

XXXXXX

Walking through the courtyard, Matt glanced at Mike, "What do you think?"

"They're scared, especially Mrs Truman and I don't think she is telling us all that she knows. " Mike answered as he glanced over his shoulder at the closed apartment door. "And I don't know why."

XXXXXX

Steve sat at his desk typing up reports. He knew he should be doing that as Rudy would come looking for them soon, but while his fingers were busy typing, his mind was working out all the facts he had on Julie's case. The problem that he kept running into was that he really didn't have any. He had no lead on her current whereabouts, and her neighbors, though helpful, did not give him much to go on. He couldn't exactly look up a man fitting the description of the one Julie argued with and get just a couple hits. So instead he sat and mindlessly typed.

A ringing phone pulled him out of his thoughts. He picked up the handset and answered, "Inspector Keller, Homicide."

"Inspector, this is Gladys Truman, Julie Wellings' neighbor. You talked to me and my husband a couple hours ago."

"Oh, sure, Mrs. Truman. What can I do for you?"

"Well...I hesitated to call you, but Harlan insisted even though I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I don't forget a voice that easily. Anyway, we just had a visit with a couple inspectors, and I swear one of them was the man I heard Julie arguing with. You remember, the one I told you about."

Steve nodded then shook his head; she couldn't see him over the phone. "Yeah, the one you heard through the wall. You think he is one of the inspectors who visited you today?" He sounded like he didn't believe a thing Gladys just told him, and it wasn't that he didn't, but a cop involved in the disappearance of a rape victim?

"Yes, his name is Matt Eppings. He was here with his partner, Mike Stone."

Steve stopped breathing and his eyes bugged out. The guy he had seen Mike walking down the corridor with… That guy did fit the description, but again, a cop? A cop who was investigating Dianne's murder with Mike? Steve the realized that he didn't know for sure who Matt even was or why he was with Mike. He didn't work at the Bryant Street station, and it wasn't like Mike to outsource his cases, especially to new people. "You're sure this guy is a cop?"

"Yeah, he showed us his badge."

"And you're positive that he's the same guy you heard arguing with Julie?"

"I am. His voice is unique...you know, like how you can tell it's Vincent Price without seeing him. Plus, when he turned to leave, his backside profile...I remember it too."

Steve wasn't sure if he should laugh at that or not. She seemed so sincere about it.

"He was the man she argued with that night. And after he left, she took off quickly too. Like we said, a couple days later, she was gone for good."

He grabbed a notepad and scribbled down the name Matt Eppings. "Thank you for the information, Mrs. Truman. This will give me something to look into."

Slowly hanging up the phone, Steve stared at name he had just jotted down on his notepad. Who was this guy, and how did he start working with his partner? Something seemed off to Steve, and he got a sudden bad feeling in his stomach.

* * *

**Chapter 13**

* * *

Steve had gotten lucky and got the bullpen almost completely to himself. Everyone else was out chasing leads or eating lunch, leaving only him and a couple other guys in the office. This made it easy to make phone calls concerning something he was supposed to have no part of. He decided that he needed to get the scoop on Matt Eppings. If he was working with Mike, and he was on Dianne's case, Steve needed to know if he was up to no good. Nothing was going to stand in his way of finding his fiancée's killer.

The search for information required more favors and promises. He figured when all was said and done, he would end up owing half the cops in San Francisco favors, but it didn't matter as long as Dianne's killer got what he deserved.

After what seemed like days on the phone, Steve came up with a bunch of information that he was not expecting. Matt Eppings, a ten-year veteran of the force, three of those as an inspector. In his time with the Bureau of Inspectors, he had gotten high marks from superiors and closed most of his cases. He had a tendency to be a little too obsessed with solving a case, and he would often go out on his own against orders or common sense, but his actions always resulted in an arrest and eventual conviction. It was because of that that his superiors overlooked his rule-breaking behavior.

The only case he had ever failed to close was the "Bayview Rapist" case, as someone there had named it. From what Steve could gather, the case had been plagued from day one. Evidence was contaminated somewhere between the crime scene and the lab or it went missing altogether, witnesses who had previously agreed to come forward suddenly clammed up or went missing, and the witness statements they did get conflicted. It was the kind of case every investigator dread.

Despite all this, Steve could not find one bad word on Matt. He was the model inspector. This caused him to wonder if Mrs. Truman had been mistaken. Sure, some people have distinctive voices, but many people sound the same. As it was, she had heard him the first time through a wall, so his voice would have been muted and muffled. It was entirely possible that she did not hear the man Julie was arguing with perfectly.

However, it made him wonder what made her suspect him at all. From the inside of her apartment, the man who left Julie's could have been anyone. Her description was admittedly vague, and the darkness could have made the scene deceiving. Plus, he was a cop, and even though it's not stated in any rulebook, cops usually stand up for each other when doubt is thrown their way.

Steve wanted to believe Gladys Truman, but he also didn't want to believe that an upstanding cop like Mike Eppings would lead a double life as a rapist/murderer.

Leaning back in his chair, he ran his hand over his head, uncertain of what his next step should be. He knew that it wouldn't be long before Mike or Matt found out about his inquiries and when they did, he would have some explaining to do. Mike had warned him to stay away from the case and he knew if, no, when, Mike and Rudy found out about his own investigation...

He jumped and quickly snapped his notebook closed and pulled one of the files on his desk towards himself and opened it as he saw Mike enter the bullpen, closely followed by whom he assumed was Matt Eppings. He hastily began to scan the notes in the file trying to look busy, uncertain of even what file he had grabbed or even what he was even reading, as Mike approached his desk.

Noticing Steve's nervousness after the tension of the last time they had been together, Mike was unable to ignore the small voice in his head that told him he was guilty of ignoring his partner and friend when Steve needed him most. He knew the agonizing pain and loss that Steve was going through, but he had been too wrapped up in the case instead of being by Steve's side, helping him through it. Softly telling Matt to wait for him in his office, he walked across to Steve's desk and waited a moment until Steve slowly looked up from the file he was reading before he asked quietly. "Hey, how are you doing?"

"Okay, I guess." Steve shrugged before he looked back down at the file on his desk and picked up his pen, hoping Mike would get the hint to leave him alone as he began to write. "Rudy wants these reports on his desk by lunchtime. I've got to get them done."

Mike stood and watched his partner for a moment, uncertain of how to break through the wall his young partner seemed to be building around himself. Jeannie had told him how Steve had reacted to her the evening before. Deciding to ignore Steve's attempts to push everyone, including himself, away, Mike lightly placed his hand on Steve's shoulder and said softly, "I do know just how you are feeling, Buddy Boy, you are not alone. I'm here whenever you need me, day or night."

Swallowing hard as he blinked away the tears that suddenly were burning the back of his eyes, Steve's pen paused halfway through the word he was attempting to write as he slowly nodded, not trusting his voice to speak.

Giving Steve's shoulder a light reassuring squeeze, Mike cleared his throat before he added more loudly, "When you finish that report, why don't you come into the office and I will give you a quick, unofficial update on Dianne's case."

Looking up quickly, Steve asked, "Have you got something?"

"We have a few leads we are checking out." Mike answered as Steve snapped close the file and rose from his chair.

XXXXXXX

Matt looked up from the file he was perusing, as Mike and Steve entered the office. Placing the file onto Mike's desk, he rose to his feet and held his hand out as Mike introduced him, "Steve, this is Inspector Matthew Eppings, Bayview Homicide, he's been assisting us on Dianne's case." Turning to Matt, Mike continued, "Matt this is Inspector Steve Keller, my partner."

Shaking Steve's hand firmly, Matt smiled, "Inspector Matthew Eppings, Bayview Homicide sounds so formal, just call me Matt, all my friends do." His smiled faded as he added solemnly, "Mike told me that you have just recently lost your fiancée. I am so very sorry for your loss. If there is anything that I can do…"

"Thanks." Steve muttered as he turned away from the Bayview Inspector and sat down in the chair.

Glancing at Mike, Matt saw the small flash of anger in Mike's eyes directed at his partner's rudeness, before Mike looked back at him, obviously embarrassed. He gave Mike a small understanding smile and shrugged before he sat back down and looked at Steve as he began. "You are probably wondering why a cop from Bayview Homicide is involved in your fiancée's murder investigation." He saw Steve flinch but ignored the reaction as he continued, "We believe that several missing women cases and an abduction and rape case which I have been working on and Dianne's case may be connected." He hesitated for a heartbeat as he glanced across at mike, before returning his attention back to Steve and told him, "We believe that we have a serial predator out there who is involved in the disappearance of at least six young women, the torture and rape of a seventh victim and the rape and murder of your fiancée."

"Eight victims?" Steve's eyes opened wide in surprise as he looked across at Mike, who silently nodded his affirmation of Matt's report so far before he returned his attention back to the Bayview Inspector.

"Eight victims, including your fiancée." Matt confirmed before adding softly, "Possibly more. We have found evidence at the cabin where we believe Dianne was murder that there are at least three more possible victims who have never been reported as missing."

Opening up the file he had been perusing, Matt removed the two identikit photos of the suspect and handing the first sketch to Steve to study as he continued. "The first drawing of the suspect with the moustache is the sketch of the man who was seen by witnesses who had seen the victims either talking to him shortly before their disappearances or getting into his car. The victim who managed to escape confirmed the sketches were accurate of the man who abducted, raped and tortured her." Handing Steve the second identikit drawing, he told him, "And this is the sketch of the suspect whom a witness saw your fiancée talking to, before reluctantly getting into his car."

"Someone saw Dianne get abducted?" Steve whispered in surprise before he turned and looked at Mike, and demanded angrily, "Someone saw Dianne being abducted and did nothing to stop it from happening?"

"He probably did not realize what he was seeing at the time." Mike explained softly, watching his partner closely.

"Ohh, he didn't realize!" Steve's voice rose with the burning intensity of the anger and disbelief that he was feeling as he stood up and began to pace the room.

"We know this guy's M.O. is to approach the women and he holds a gun on them, usually out of sight of any potential witnesses, when he orders them into the car. He threatens to kill them if they try and resist." Matt added. "So, the witnesses never suspected they were witnessing anything amiss at all."

Picking up the identikit photo of the man who had abducted Dianne, Mike held it out to his partner, "Steve, I need you to look at this sketch. Have a good look and see if you remember seeing this guy hanging around, watching Dianne at all. He's about six feet tall, in his thirties, medium build, he might even have had a mustache." Drawing a deep breath in an attempt to settle himself, Steve stopped pacing and took the photo, studying it carefully as Mike added. "He was possibly driving an old dark colored Ford Galaxie."

"Or a late model red Barracuda." Matt added.

Studying the identikit photo closely, Steve shook his head before he looked back at Mike and asked, "Is this the guy?"

"We think so." Mike answered truthfully. "One thing we do know is he likes a certain type of victim. Young, petite looking women aged between fourteen and twenty- five, with light brown hair. All of his victims so far have been from good family homes, with stable backgrounds like Dianne."

"He likes the risk of grabbing them when they are walking alone in what is normally considered safe city streets and he doesn't seem concerned at all if there are potential witnesses."

A soft knock on the office door interrupted them and Mike smiled as the door opened and Jeannie entered.

She hesitated as she saw the stranger in the room and asked shyly, "I'm sorry, Mike, am I interrupting?"

"It's okay, Sweetheart, come in." Mike told her, as Steve turned to face her and Matt rose to his feet, "We have just finished reviewing Dianne's case." Nodding towards the Bayview inspector, Mike introduced Matt. "Jeannie this is Inspector Matt Eppings, Bayview Homicide, he is assisting us with the case." Looking at Matt, he finished the introduction, "Matt this is my daughter, Jeannie."

Stepping away from his chair, Matt smiled at Jeannie as he lightly shook her hand, "Delighted to finally meet you, Jeannie. Your dad has told me a lot about you. And may I say that you are every bit as beautiful as your dad told me you are."

"Thank you." Jeannie smiled, blushing at the young Inspector's compliment.

"Please take my seat." Matt offered.

"Thank you." Jeannie nodded as she glanced at Steve, who suddenly appeared to be studying a photo he held in his hand. Sitting down on the chair, she looked at her father as she continued, 'I… I'm sorry to interrupt Mike but Dianne's parents called me." She bit her lip as she glanced anxiously again at Steve who looked up and stared at her, "They have been trying to reach you, Steve, Dianne's funeral is going to be held tomorrow at ten."

Swallowing hard, Steve was only able to whisper around the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat, threatening to choke him, "Where?"

"St Pauls," Jeannie answered softly, "They are hoping that you will go to the funeral with them as part of their family."

Unsure of what had caused the tension between his daughter and his partner, Mike glanced between the two as Steve nodded and murmured to Jeannie. "I will talk to them tonight."

Forcing a small smile, Jeannie rose from her seat, "I will let them know." Looking at her father, the smile grew a little more relaxed as she asked him, "Will you be home for dinner?"

"I'll try, no promises." Mike smiled at her.

"I know." She smiled before she turned and headed towards the door.

Silently watching Jeannie leave, Steve froze as he saw the look in Matt's eyes as he watched the young woman leave the room. The fleeting, almost animistic expression on Matt's face vanished almost instantly, leaving Steve wondering if he had seen it or if it was just his imagination.

"Hey, Jeannie, wait up!" Matt shouted out the door before turning back to Mike. "I need to go back to the station and check in with my captain. I'll check in with you later."

Mike nodded and watched Matt walk out of the office and approach his daughter. He heard the inspector offer her a lift home which she gladly accepted.

Steve had been watching them too. There was just something about not only the look he wasn't sure he saw, but also about the man's mannerisms toward Jeannie. He seemed a bit too forward, a bit too interested in someone whom Steve guessed was at least fifteen years younger. Sure, Steve himself had done the same thing with ladies, but he didn't feel he had been so lecherous about it. He sure hoped he didn't come off that way anyway. He turned back around and thought. Maybe he was seeing things. Maybe he was being protective of the girl he saw as a little sister. Maybe his own misery was making him see hurt everywhere.

"What did you think of Matt?" Mike asked, sitting down at his desk.

Steve came back to reality. "Huh? Think about Matt?"

Mike nodded.

"How'd you hook up with him anyway? You didn't go around looking for help, did you?" he asked, dismayed.

Mike paused at Steve's attitude before shaking his head. "No, actually he found me. He got word of Dianne's murder and found it very similar to his victims."

"And you think he has something?" Now he was being skeptical.

"Yes, I do. The M.O. is the same, the witness statements are similar. It's definitely the same guy."

Steve just looked at his partner, doubt written all over his face.

"What is bothering you, Steve? You're not jealous that Matt is working the case and you're not, are you?"

Steve rolled his eyes. "Thanks for thinking so much of me, Mike."

"Well…"

"Yeah, I would rather be working the case with you instead of that guy being here, but…"

"But what?"

Steve shook his head. "There's something off about him. I mean, alright, every inspector in the city has heard about the case, but for him so quickly to come over here and offer up his services...doesn't that seem a little fishy to you?"

"You think solid leads are fishy?"

"Not what he brought you...just how he brought it to you. And did you see the way he looked at Jeannie?"

Mike sighed. "Okay, now you're seeing things."

"I'm seeing leering gazes at your daughter? I'm pretty sure I wasn't imagining that! You know, she is oddly enough the killer's type. Young, light brown hair…"

Mike angrily cut him off. "Oh, that's just preposterous! Are you seriously telling me that Matt is the killer?! And that he's after Jeannie?!"

"Maybe not him, but…"

Mike quickly stood up. "Look, Steve. I cannot tell you how sorry I am that Dianne is gone. She was a great girl and perfect for you, and I empathize that you want to put her killer behind bars, but assuming every man in the world is her killer is ridiculous at best! No man in this station would jump to such absurd conclusions!"

"Absurd?! Well maybe I heard something that connects him to that missing girl Julie Wellings."

Mike let out an aggravated breath. "Of course, he's connected to her; he's the investigating inspector!"

"I don't mean in that capacity."

Mike narrowed his eyes as he stared at his partner. "What aren't you telling me?"

The two glared at each other for what seemed like an eternity.

"Let's just say I have it on decent authority that maybe he shouldn't be completely trusted. But by all means, Mike, don't listen to me! What do I know? I'm just a grieving fiancé who can't think straight!" Steve turned and stormed out of the room, slamming the office door behind him hard enough that every other person in the bullpen jumped at the noise.

* * *

**Chapter 14**

* * *

He wished he could have found a car a little less conspicuous, but the department only had so many models in their fleet, and he certainly couldn't have hidden in his Porsche. He hoped that Matt and Jeannie didn't notice the brown LTD following them home. There were LTD's all over San Francisco's streets...what was one more?

As he drove, Steve could tell that the two were having a conversation, but he also thought Matt was spending too much time looking at Jeannie instead of the road. "Why does he keep looking at her like that?" he muttered under his breath as if someone else would hear. "Look at the damn road."

Matt also seemed to be going the long, unnecessary way to Mike's De Haro Street residence. He should have taken 8th Street to Division and down De Haro, but the inspector hopped on the 101 and completely overshot Mike's house. Steve followed him as he backtracked north, wondering why anyone who should have been familiar with San Francisco would take the freeway to go to De Haro. All Steve could think was that he did it on purpose to spend more time with Jeannie.

He could hear the conversation now. Matt laughs and pretends that he was absentmindedly driving back to Bayview and that's why he got on the 101. Jeannie, being too nice to say anything, laughs it off as well. Innocent mistake. They were both wrapped up in a conversation anyway and not paying attention. This move was as slick and cliché as a guy putting his arm around his date at the movies. Steve shook his head and swallowed the bad taste in his mouth.

Arriving several minutes later than they should have, the two finally pulled into Mike's driveway. Steve parked a bit down the street, but still close enough that he could see Jeannie. He just wished that he could also hear what they were saying. It was probably some seemingly innocent conversation that Matt was using to size the girl up. Jeannie was too sweet and naive to realize what he was doing. Although it was all speculation, Steve wanted to punch the guy in the face.

Was this what he did to Julie Wellings? Did he offer her a ride somewhere, loosen her up with a little friendly conversation? What did he do then? Did he kidnap her? Did some other guy? What did Matt have to do with it? Steve was certain he had some hand in this...he was just too creepy not to be involved. Finding evidence and convincing Mike would be difficult though.

Steve watched impatiently as Jeannie stayed in the car for several minutes. He could tell the two were just talking, but it was getting Steve angry. He was paying Jeannie too much attention. Too much.

She got out of the car after a good five minutes, waved as Matt pulled out of the driveway, and headed toward her front door. As she climbed the stairs, a brown blur whizzed by in the direction Matt went. As quick as it was, it looked a lot like the car her father drove while on duty, but he wouldn't be around, and neither would Steve. Deciding she was just seeing things, she shook her head and continued the climb.

Matt on the other hand, was much more observant. He had seen a brown car making every lane change and turn he did, but since he couldn't see the driver, he ignored it. However, when the car didn't pass him once he pulled into Jeannie's driveway, he got suspicious. Now, just like he thought it might, the brown car was behind him again. Sure, it was a couple car lengths back, but Matt could tell it was the same car. And now he could tell who was driving.

"Damn, Keller. You the suspicious type, huh? Or maybe the jealous type who can't stand that I'm on this case and you're not." He chuckled. "That's pathetic. Really pathetic. You really are losing it, man."

Mike would certainly have to hear about this, but not before Matt had a little fun with his tail. He decided to take Steve on an obstacle course through the streets and highways. There was no destination, only a goal - lose Steve Keller, which he finally did after a good twenty minutes of trying. When he finally could no longer see him, Matt drove on and said to himself, "You're quite the competition. Too bad you won't be around long enough to keep playing."

XXXX

"Mike, I have been cross checking the reports of women who have gone missing in the Bay area during the last two years and the clothes they were last seen wearing with the unidentified clothes we found in the cabin and I think I may have the names of two of the possible unidentified victims." Lee announced excitedly as he hurried into Mike's office and placed two thin missing person's files on Mike's desk, opening the first one as he removed a photo and handed it to Mike. "Emily Carter, aged twenty, disappeared in June last year from North Beach after deciding to walk home alone late one night after arguing with her boyfriend." Pushing the file aside, Lee quickly opened the second file and removed a second photo, handing it to Mike as he continued, "Patricia Hodges, twenty two, was last after leaving her friend's home in Hayes Valley, after attending a party on Christmas Eve. Both women have not made contact with their families nor has their bank accounts been touched. And both women were d wearing clothes that were extremely similar to the clothing we found in the cabin at the times of their disappearances."

Picking up the two photos, Mike studied them closely, noticing that in her photo, Patricia was wearing the same cheesecloth tie-dyed blouse that now was sealed in an evidence bag down in the forensic lab, bloodied and torn. Both girls had the same shade of light brown hair, both were young and pretty, they could have been mistaken as sisters. In fact, they could have been mistaken as sisters of the other six missing girls. He did not need to read the accompanying police reports to know both had come from stable homes and had no reasons to disappear on their own accord. Placing the two photos back down on his desk, Mike stood up to grab his coat and hat, "Let's go talk to their parents, maybe they can tell us a little bit more about the girls' movements on the nights they disappeared."

"Should we grab the clothing from the lab for them to identify?" Lee asked as the phone on Mike's desk began to ring.

Lifting his hand in a silent order for Lee to wait a moment, Mike turned back to his desk and picked up the phone, "Lieutenant Stone, Homicide."

_"What the hell is going on, Mike? Why did you have your partner, Keller, follow me this afternoon when I dropped your daughter home and why the Hell is he investigating me?"_

Mike frowned in confusion at Matt's angry accusations. "Matt?"

_"Yeah, Mike, it's me."_

"What do you mean that Steve is investigating you and that he followed you?" Looking up at Lee who was still waiting next to the door, trying hard not to eavesdrop into the phone conversation, Mike paused before he said softly into the phone, "Please hang on for a sec, Matt." He heard Matt loudly sigh as he pressed the phone against his shoulder and looked back at Lee and ordered, "Take the clothing and see if they can give us a positive identification that the clothes are what their daughters were wearing the night they went missing and see if they can add anything else they might have forgotten to mention or might have remember since the girls' disappearances. Take Norm with you." He watched Lee nod and waited until the younger inspector left the office before he lifted the phone back to his ear and asked, "Now Matt, what do you mean by Steve followed you and that he is investigating you?"

_"He followed me this afternoon when I gave your daughter a lift home. I had to take him on a wild goose chase around the city before I was able to lose him."_

"And you are sure it was Steve?" Mike asked, hoping against hope that the Bayview inspector might have been mistaken.

 _"I was followed from the station to your house and then after I left by a brown LTD with your partner behind the wheel. I ran the license plates to double check that I was not mistaken and they came back as being registered to San Francisco P.D. and then when I got back here my Captain called me into his office and demanded to know who I had upset down in San Francisco. It seems your partner decided to call in a couple of favors and checked me out. He wanted to know everything about me and my involvement in this case!"_ Mike grimaced as Matt continued his very angry but totally justified complaints, _"I want to know, am I suddenly a suspect or something, Mike, and if so- why? Just what the Hell have I done to come under this type of scrutiny by your partner?"_

Shaking his head at what he could only explain to himself as his partner's almost insane and self-destructive grief driven behavior, Mike rushed to reassure the angry Bayview Homicide inspector, "No, Matt, I swear that you are not under any suspicion." Glancing out of the office at Steve's empty desk, Mike sighed, "I'm sorry about Steve's behavior, he's under a lot of stress. I will have a talk with him."

 _"You better Mike, or else I will be making an official complaint."_ Matt growled before he took a deep breath and added softly, _"I know Keller is dealing with a lot at the moment but just get him to back off before he gets himself in any major trouble, we both know that he shouldn't be anywhere near this case. He's jeopardizing any chance we have of making any convictions when we catch this lunatic."_ Matt paused for a moment and Mike heard voices in the background before Matt spoke again, _"I'm sorry Mike, I have to go but I should be back in San Francisco in the morning. But please talk to your partner, working this case has been hard enough with having to look over my shoulder all the time because Keller has decided to paint some imaginary target on my back. If he doesn't back off, I'm afraid the only other option I will have is to make an official complaint about his harassment and we both know that will probably end of his career."_

"I'll talk to him." Mike promised again to dead air as he heard the distinctive click in his ear as Matt hung up the phone. Slamming the phone down, he turned and snatched his coat and hat from the coat rack in the corner before he turned and rushed out of the door. "Just what the Hell have you been up to, Buddy Boy?!" he growled to himself as he ran out of the bullpen.

* * *

**Chapter 15**

* * *

Pulling up in front of an apartment building on Union, Mike saw Steve's car parked along the curb. He parked his car in front of the Porsche, got out, and ran up Steve's stairs. He had tried to calm himself the whole way over, because he didn't want to do or say something regrettable, but he had not quite gotten as calm as he would have liked.

Taking a deep breath, he knocked on the door, lightly at first. He didn't want to scare Steve off right away. No one answered, so he knocked harder. He better not be avoiding me, Mike thought.

Steve opened the door the rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Now what?" he grumbled.

"Can I come in, or do I have to stand out here all day?"

Steve moved out of the doorway so Mike could enter his apartment. Once inside, Steve offered him a seat, but Mike preferred to stand. Steve knew this was going to be a conversation he would not enjoy.

"What exactly were you thinking this afternoon?" Mike stated bluntly.

Steve, assuming that Mike was speaking of the tiff they had had in his office, replied, "I'm not changing my mind. There's something off about that guy, no matter what you think."

"Is that why you followed him?" Mike fumed.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Steve answered as if he truly had no idea.

"Oh, don't give me that! You know damn well what I'm talking about! You followed Matt when he took Jeannie home! Why on earth would you do something like that?"

Steve's eyes bugged out. "Are you kidding me? You actually trust that man enough with your daughter that you didn't even worry about her being alone in a car with him? The guy could be a serial killer, and you have don't even care!"

Mike growled in annoyance. "Have you lost everything that made you a good investigator? I have never seen you jump to such ridiculous conclusions! What exactly points to Matt even being a suspect, if I may ask?"

"The way he looked at Jeannie for one! Mike, even you can't deny that she is exactly the killer's type, just like Dianne was! There's no way in hell I'm going to let Jeannie suffer the same fate!"

Mike glared at the insinuation that he was okay with Jeannie ending up like Dianne. "How dare you think that I would ever purposely put my daughter in harm's way!"

Steve tried to backtrack. "That's not what I meant…"

"And that's all the evidence you have? That's not even circumstantial! It's just ludicrous!"

"Ludicrous, huh? Then how come I have a witness who puts him with one of your victims after her attack but before her disappearance?"

"What?!" was all Mike could say.

"Julie Wellings...her neighbors saw a man who fits Matt's description to a T at her apartment. They overheard the two of them arguing. Then poof, she disappears!"

"Circumstantial! You use that as evidence to even question someone, and everyone will know you're on some kind of witch hunt! And what were you doing talking to her neighbors? This is not your case!"

"Well someone has to get to the truth! With Matt hanging around, it won't be you!"

Mike wanted to punch his partner. "You think this is what Dianne would want? You disobeying orders, acting like a one-man army? You think she wants you to lose your job over her?"

Steve got in Mike's face and angrily spat, "She'd want me to catch her killer. She trusted me enough to know that I'd get it done no matter what I had to do."

The two looked fixedly at each other for several moments, anger in both their eyes. Mike finally broke the silence. "I don't want to see you anywhere near the station until you come to your senses. I will not have you ruining the case and letting Dianne's killer get away with murder," he warned before turning and seeing himself out the front door.

XXXXX

"Dianne was a wonderful young woman, full of fun and laughter, always smiling, always willing to help others whenever she could."

Swallowing hard, Steve blinked away the tears that blurred his vision as he stared at the polished coffin with its silver handles that sat carefully balanced above the grave, a bouquet of pink roses and delicate white baby's breath backed by a bed of green ferns rested on the coffin's lid. A soft choked sob escaped from his lips as the priest continued his eulogy.

"Dianne's happiness was made complete when she accepted Steve's marriage proposal only hours before her life was so cruelly taken. Her family have told me how happy and excited she was when she rang them to tell them of her news."

Unable to look at the coffin anymore, Steve looked across the grave at the many friends and other family members who had gathered to pay their respects and to farewell Dianne. He was barely aware of Dianne's mother beside him as she reached for his hand and gave it a tight squeeze as he found himself staring across at Jeannie who was standing between Mike and Lee, as her tears slowly rolled down her face.

He swallowed another sob, as the priest ask everyone bow their heads in prayer. Lowering his head as the prayer began, he was unable to concentrate on the priest's soft prayer, instead he found himself looking up and staring at Dianne's coffin as it began to be slowly lowered into the ground. Not willing to watch the coffin disappear into the earth, and with it all his dreams, Steve quickly squeezed his eyes closed and lowered his head, his grip tightening on Dianne's mother's hand as he fought the urge just to turn and run, to pretend that this was all just a bad dream.

"For as much as it has pleased Almighty God to take out of this world the soul of Dianne Mackenzie, we therefore commit her body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust…"

The priest's words screamed in Steve's head as he instinctively looked up and opened his eyes as he heard the soft thumps as the priest dropped the small handful of dirt into the grave.

"Looking for that blessed hope when the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout…"

Unwilling to listen to anymore of the priest's soft spoken prayer, committing Dianne's body to the grave, Steve again looked across the now yawning mouth of the grave towards Jeannie, his intense grief momentarily morphing into a white hot anger as he remembered Mike's reaction when he tried to warn him about his fears regarding Matt. He froze as he saw the man, whom he distrusted, standing behind Jeannie, his hand resting on Jeannie's shoulder, lightly squeezing it as he whispered something into her ear.

"I'm so sorry for your loss, Steve, if there is anything…"

Steve jumped in surprise as he felt a hand lightly squeeze his own shoulder and he reluctantly looked away from Jeannie and Matt, blinking in surprise as he realized that the funeral was finished and mourners were beginning to crowd around Dianne's parents and himself, offering their condolences for their loss.

Waiting until the priest spoke his final words and the large crowd of mourners turned to give their condolences and depart, Matt tapped Mike on the shoulder and said softly, "We need to talk."

Mike glanced at Matt and nodded before turning back to Jeannie and drawing her into a hug, whispering soft soothing words of comfort as Jeannie buried her face into his chest and cried. Holding her close, he waited until her soft sobs stopped and she stepped away, wiping her eyes. "How about we get you home?" He asked her gently.

"I'll take her home, Mike." Lee volunteered before he looked at Jeannie and added, "If that's okay with you, Jeannie?"

Looking between her father and Matt, who was waiting patiently to speak to her father, Jeannie turned back to Lee and asked, "Would you mind if I speak to Dianne's parents and Steve first?"

"Of course." Lee smiled as he gently took Jeanie by the arm and walked with her to where Dianne's parents and Steve stood surrounded by other mourners.

Watching Jeannie leave, Matt turned back to Mike and said quietly, "I hope you didn't mind me attending the funeral, especially knowing the suspicions your partner has about me but I wanted to keep an eye on everyone who attended. Watch for anyone who seemed over interested in the family's reactions."

Mike nodded, he had done the same thing at murder victim's funerals before.

"But that's not the only reason I am here." Matt added quietly as he grabbed Mike's arm and led him away from the other mourners, "We have another report about a young girl in Bayview going missing last night. Sammi Blair, seventeen, light brown hair, five foot- six, last seen leaving the library after studying for an exam there until it closed last night. Her parents reported her missing when she wasn't home by midnight. We have a witness who saw her get into an old blue sedan."

"Same M.O." Mike sighed.

Matt nodded, watching over Mike's shoulder as Steve was led away with Dianne's parents towards the waiting cars as he said softly, "And the witness gave us the same description as our suspect."

xxxxxx

Jeannie, with Lee close behind, approached Steve and the Mackenzie's, whom she greeted with hugs and apologies. They told her they appreciated having her there and were glad she was a good friend to Dianne.

She then turned to Steve. "I'm sorry things are bad with Mike right now," she said softly. "He really does understand what you're going through."

Steve simply nodded and looked down at the ground. "Look, Jeannie...I'm thinking of getting away from here for a while. Take some time to get my head straight, you know?"

Jeannie placed her hand on Steve's forearm. "I think that's a great idea. Being around here, and in the middle of the investigation...that can't be good. Go visit some friends, take some alone time in the woods. Wait until Mike closes the case. Maybe you'll feel a little better once the killer is serving time."

Steve shrugged. "Yeah, maybe."

"Do you have a destination in mind?"

He shook his head. "No. Maybe just drive until I stop, who knows. I'll call you and let you know in case someone needs to get a hold of me. I don't know when I'll be back."

Jeannie nodded knowingly.

He gave her a hug. "Thanks for being there for Dianne. And for trying to keep me in line."

"It hasn't been easy, but you're my friend, and I worry about you."

"Thanks. I'm still sorry about everything."

"Don't be."

Pulling out of the embrace, Steve looked in Jeannie's eyes. "And you watch yourself around Matt, you hear?"

Jeannie and Lee both gave him a curious look.

"Huh?" Jeannie uttered. "Matt? Why? He's a decent guy."

Steve shook his head. "There's something not right there. You just watch yourself."

She chuckled. "I'm pretty sure he's fine...but okay, Steve. You...you get some rest." Turning on her heel, she started walking off toward the cars that lined the road by the grave site.

Lee stayed behind. "You think there's something funny about Matt?"

"I don't have any proof, and Mike thinks I'm jealous of him or something, but I dunno. Just the way he acted around her...and she's the killer's type, just like Dianne was." He shook his head. "I hope I'm wrong. Just keep an eye on her, huh?"

He patted Lee on the shoulder as Mrs. Mackenzie grabbed his arm and whispered softly "It's time to go."

XXXXX

"I'm so sorry for your loss, Steve, if there's anything I can…""Thanks." Steve nodded politely, cutting off another well-meaning mourner who had come to the wake as he turned and moved through the crowded room, looking for Dianne's parents.

He had to get out of here, the room suddenly felt small and small group of well-meaning friends who had come to share their condolences and to honor Diane's memory at the wake felt like they were starting to press into him, making it hard to breathe. Spotting Diane's father talking softly to the priest in a semi secluded corner, Steve carefully maneuvered through the small groups of people who were softly talking between themselves until he reached the man he wanted to speak to.

"Steve, I was just thanking Father Johnson for conducting such a beautiful service."

Steve nodded and muttered his own thanks to the priest before he turned back to Diane's father and said softly. "I'm sorry but I have to go…"

"Go?" Mr Mackenzie frowned, "But…" he paused, studying Steve's anxious face, suddenly understanding the younger man's discomfort. Nodding, he patted Steve on the shoulder. "I understand, I will talk to you later?"

Steve nodded, 'I promise I will call you in a couple of days, I just need some time by myself."Mr Mackenzie nodded again as he watched Steve turn and hurry towards the front door.

* * *

**Chapter 16**

* * *

Steve determined that the best way to crack this case open was to find Julie Wellings. It was not something that he could have done with Mike or Matt hanging around, so now that he was supposedly heading out of town for some alone time, he could hopefully put an end to this mystery once and for all.

He figured Julie left town less to get away from bad memories and more to get away from a suspect who was still after her. She knew his identity, and he knew she did. Knowing her life was in danger, she hid herself somewhere that Steve figured only a couple people knew about. Those two people were likely her parents, but if they were in San Francisco, their address was not in any phone book Steve found. He would have to see if he could find them through property or employment records.

He started his search at the San Francisco County Assessor's Office, but just like with the phone book search, that turned up empty. From there, he decided to check surrounding counties like San Mateo and Marin. Deciding to head north first, he ended up at the Marin County Assessor where a helpful older lady assisted him in his search for Lila and George Wellings.

After several files and many books of records, his search was complete. George and Lila Wellings lived in Mill Valley. Confident that he had the correct couple, he quickly jotted their address down, thanked the secretary, and headed out to find some answers.

Xxxxx

Coasting his car to a gentle stop, before grabbing the piece of paper from the seat beside him, glancing down at the address he had scrawled on it before he looked back at the white house he was now parked in front of. Satisfied that this was the house he was looking for, he climbed out of the car, slamming the car door behind him before he turned and jogged up the stairs to the front door. Knocking on the door, he stepped back and waited as he heard movement from within before the door opened a moment later and a woman in her early forties asked. "May I help you?"

"Inspector Keller, San Francisco Homicide," he announced as he pulled out his badge and showed it to her, "I would like to talk to you about your daughter, Julie."

Her face paled and her voice trembled as she whispered in fear, "Has something happened to Julie?"

"No, as far as I know, Julie is fine," Steve rushed to reassure her before he added, "I am investigating the rape and murder of Dianne Mackenzie and we have reasons to believe that Julie may be able to help us with our inquiries. May I please come in?"

"Ohh, I'm sorry, of course. Please, come in." She forced a small smile as she opened the door wider and stepped aside, allowing Steve to enter before she closed the door behind them. "Please, take a seat." She told him as she ushered him into the small, comfy looking living room before she asked nervously, "Can I get you something to drink? Lemonade or maybe a coffee?"

Steve smiled warmly and shook his head as he sat down on the sofa, "No thank you, I'm fine."

She nodded before she sat down and nervously straightened her skirt over her knees before she looked up at him and asked, "You said you wanted to ask me some questions about Julie? You don't think whoever..." She swallowed hard and glanced at a photo of her daughter before she looked back at Steve. "I mean… you don't think the man who did what he did to Julie might have something to do with that horrible murder of that poor girl, do you?"

"We are not sure," Steve hedged, momentarily unable to look the women in the eye. Drawing a deep breath, he looked back at her, "but anything you can tell me that Julie may have told you happened to her would help."

"I'm not sure just how much help I will be." Lila Wellings shrugged as she clutched her hands in front of her and looked down, "Julie told the police everything she could remember about what happened to her."

"I've read Julie's statements about what happened after she was kidnapped and taken to the cabin, the night she was kidnapped and how she escaped." Steve lied, "But I am hoping that maybe going over what she told you that happened, maybe there was something that Julie forgot when she made her statements, or maybe there was something she told you, that she did not tell us."

Biting her bottom lip, Lila blinked away the tears that threatened to fall, "I'm not sure just what I can tell you that Julie didn't."

"Why don't you start by telling me what Julie told you happened that night." Steve asked gently.

Reaching into her pocket, the upset woman removed a tissue and dabbed at her eyes before she dropped her hands back into her lap and began to twist the fine sheet of tissue in her hands as she spoke. "She decided to go for a run that night, she loved running of a night, she always would laugh when I would warn her about how dangerous it could be and chastise me saying. Telling me it was perfectly safe, and how she loved the peacefulness and quietness of the night when she ran. But that night, she told me that he pulled up beside her and offered her a lift. When she refused, he got out of the car and grabbed her, threatening her with a gun and made her get into the car with him. He made her close her eyes and told her if she opened them or tried anything to attract attention, he would kill her." Dabbing her eyes again, her lip trembled as she went on, "He took her to a cabin, somewhere north of the city and that's where he… that's where… where he attacked her." Unable to look at Steve, she said softly, "If Julie had not managed to escape when he went outside…but Thank God, she did, and she managed to fight him off when he tried to force her back inside. She ended up in the bay, where the captain of a dinner cruise saw her struggling in the water and rescued her."

"She was a very lucky young lady," Steve agreed, "But a few days after she left the hospital, I understand that she left the city with no forwarding address.

"Lila nodded, "She wanted to get away from here, and what happened, she wanted to start a new life somewhere else."

"Can you tell me where Julie is living now?" Steve asked quietly.

"No! Please just leave her alone." Lila rose from her seat and began to pace the room. "She's gone through enough. She can't tell you anymore than she already has and I'm sorry if what's she's told you isn't enough to help you find the man who murdered that poor young girl the other day, I don't see how she can help you now."

"I know something happened after Julie left the hospital after the attack. Her neighbors told me they heard Julie arguing with someone shortly before she fled. They told me that she was terrified and a few days later, your husband and yourself, came and took all of her possessions from the apartment." Steve said softly, "I need to know who Julie argued with and why she was so frightened. And where is she now?"

"I can't tell you." the upset woman whispered.

"Please tell me."

Steve implored, "I need to talk to Julie about what happened that night." He paused and drew a deep breath before he admitted softly, "I want to find the bastard who raped Julie just as much as you, maybe even more, the girl he murdered was my fiancée."

Lila stopped pacing and turned wide eyed to face Steve, "Your fiancée?"

Steve nodded silently.

Running her hand through her hair, she sighed, "Julie was scared, like she was hiding something about what happened to her the night she was kidnapped. The night she ran, she rang us upset and crying, said she had to get away, but she wouldn't tell us what was wrong and after everything that happened, we didn't push her. Instead we made arrangements for her to go to my sister's place in New York City."

"Is she still there?"

"No, she only stayed there for a few weeks but when she found out the police were asking where she was, she decided to move to somewhere where she knew no one and no one knew her."

"Where?"

Julie's mother shook her head," I…I promised not to tell anyone, especially the police…""I really need to talk to her," Steve pleaded softly, "I believe Julie knows who kidnapped her that night. Without Julie's co-operation, I can't put the man I believe who raped her and possibly raped and murdered several young women, including my fiancée, in jail for the rest of his life, he belongs and where he can't rape or murder anyone else."

Staring at Steve, Mrs Wellings bit her bottom lip before she nodded and hurried across to a writing desk in the corner of the room, grabbing a pen and piece of paper, "This is where Julie's is living now." She told him as she scribbled an address on the piece of paper. Steve stood up as she walked back and slipped the paper into his hand. "Promise me, you won't tell anyone else where she is."

Steve nodded.

"And just one more thing I want you to promise me." She added, clutching onto his hand.

"Anything."

"Get the bastard! Please, don't let him destroy any more lives."

* * *

**Chapter 17**

* * *

"I arranged for our witness to meet us upstairs. " Matt told Mike as he led him through the front doors of the Bayview Police Station and up the wooden stairs to the second-floor offices where the Homicide bullpen and interview rooms were, as he continued over his shoulder. "He apparently got a full bird's eye view of the kidnapping last night. Saw the girl, our suspect and the car he was driving and watched the girl get forced into the car." Opening the door to the bullpen, Matt stepped aside allowing Mike to enter as he continued to update the San Francisco lieutenant. "He was extremely reluctant to make a statement last night …but with some gentle persuasion from my lieutenant about if he co-operates that the small bag of weed that fell out of his pocket while he was initially talking with the uniform guys might be forgotten…"

"Are you sure he is going to tell us the truth and not just something he wants us to hear to make the drug charges disappear?" Mike frowned as he followed Matt through the bullpen.

"He's one of most reliable snitches." Matt answered as he reached a closed wooden door marked 'Interview Room' at the back of the bullpen. Pausing he turned to Mike, "He has never lied to us before and there's no reason for him to lie to us now, after all he was the one who contacted us about what he saw, not the other way around. He's just worried about the weed; he's looking at doing ten years if he breaches his parole." Turning back to the door, he gave it three loud taps, before he opened the door and ushered Mike inside.

"Lieutenant Whelan, this is Lieutenant Stone, San Francisco Homicide," Matt tilted his head towards Mike as he made the introductions, "Mike this is my Lieutenant, Peter Whelan," Nodding towards the small, jumpy man sitting at the bare wooden table, he added, "And this is Alan Simms, who, I am sure is going to tell us everything he saw last night, Aren't you, Al?"

Mike and Matt had a seat across from Al, who looked apprehensive about something, and not just about his parole violation.

Mike gave him a reassuring smile. "You did a good thing when you called us to tell us what you saw."

"Yeah, well...I feel bad for that young lady, you know? She was just out for a stroll and gets snatched up."

"Can you describe exactly what you saw?" Matt asked.

"The young lady was just walking along when this car pulls up along the curb. The man inside shouted out something to her. I couldn't hear what, but whatever it was, she refused. I saw her shake her head. Then he jumps out of the car and starts walking alongside her. Then just like that, she's getting into his car. Didn't look none too happy about it though. See, the guy parked under a streetlight, so I could see her pretty well."

"Could you see what he looked like?"

"He was trying to hide his face and all that, but he turned in my direction just long enough for me to see his face."

"Good. So, what did you see?" Peter inquired.

Al sat for a good long minute in silence. Matt started tapping the table with his fingers while Peter leaned forward in his chair, staring at his witness.

Mike, on the other hand, could tell he was initially correct that something else was bothering the man. "Sir, is there something we can get you? Coffee, water...?"

Al shook his head. "No thank you."

"You do know that whatever you tell us will kept in the strictest confidence. No one will know you came to us," Mike reminded him.

Al looked straight into his eyes. "I can't go back there, jail. I know there's guys in there who have it in for me for snitching. And this time...well..."

"Do you know the man you saw abducting Blair?"

Al shrugged. "I know of him. He's from the neighborhood. I just don't want to get that reputation, ya know? I don't need that."

"Well, like I said, no one will know. If anyone asks you what you were doing here, just tell them you got busted for drugs." Mike gave him another reassuring smile.

"I dunno his name," Al began, "but I think he's in his thirties, white, probably about six foot."

"Any facial hair, tattoos...?" Matt asked.

"Not that I could see. I think he used to have a moustache though."

"You said he's from the neighborhood," Peter jumped in asking. "Do you know where?"

Al shook his head. "No clue. I just usually see him in that blue car. Sedan of some kind."

"See a license plate?" Mike wondered aloud.

"WR...O? Or is it zero?"

"An O," Matt answered.

"It's three letters, three numbers."

"Okay. WRO...91...6. Yeah, 6. Like September 16th, my mother's birthday."

"Good! That's always a big help," Mike said encouragingly.

"Mr. Simms, would you be willing to look through some mug shots, see if you can give us a name with that face?" Peter asked, standing up.

Al nodded and the Lieutenant popped out of the room, grabbing some mug books that were sitting on a nearby desk. He came back in the room and set the books on the table in front Al, who began flipping the pages. After five minutes, he spotted someone. "That. That's him. But like I said, he doesn't have that moustache anymore."

The three men walked around the table and looked at who Al was pointing to.

"Jeremy Solento." Matt frowned, glancing at Alan before looking back at the photo. "Are you positive it's him?"

"It's him! The guy I saw last night with the girl!" Al insisted, pointing at the mugshot again. "I will never forget his face or the fear I saw in that young girl's face as he forced her to get into the car."

"Do you know him?" Peter looked at his inspector.

"No," Matt answered as he stared at the photo, "But I want to!"

Looking up at the three men crowded around him, Al asked, "Can I go now?"

Peter nodded distractedly as he carefully removed the mugshot from the book, "Yeah. You can go. But don't leave town."

Rising from his seat, Al hurried towards the door, pausing just before he opened it. He turned back and looked at Peter. "Ummm, what about our deal, you know, the umm… weed?"

Looking up at the frightened snitch, Peter smiled and asked innocently, "What weed?"

XXXXXX

Matt called Records and had Jeremy Solento's file sent to him. Still sitting in the interview room, the three investigators poured over the file to discover what kind of man they were dealing with.

"Well, he's no stranger to the legal system, is he?" Mike noted.

"Offences dating back to the early '60's. Drunk and disorderly, assault with a deadly weapon, stalking...yeah, I'd say we're on to something," Matt added.

"Now, assault and stalking does not always escalate to rape and murder. We need to find something else, maybe a connection to one of the victims, a rape charge that was dropped...something more than a bar fight and a rejection," Peter reminded his inspector.

"How 'bout this?" Mike said, reading a page that had been toward the back of the file. "His juvie records."

"He has records as a juvenile? That somehow doesn't surprise me," Peter said.

"Aren't they sealed? Most juveniles get their records sealed. Why weren't his sealed?" Matt asked a little too curiously.

Both Mike and Peter looked at the young man curiously.

"Does it really matter?" Peter asked.

"Hell, if it helps us, I'm glad it didn't happen."

"There's no way the courts would seal this. He escaped from a juvenile facility when he was fifteen, and he was accused of rape four times between the ages of 14 and 17. All that makes his records un-sealable."

"A fourteen-year-old rapist who doesn't commit any rapes as an adult?" Matt asked. "That doesn't seem likely."

"Maybe he got better at not getting caught," Peter suggested.

"Now this is interesting. It seems that, as a child, Jeremy's parents owned a cabin around where our cabin is located. He was arrested there twice," Mike said.

"Is it the same cabin?" Matt asked. "There are a few in that area."

"I think I'll give my office a call and have someone check property records, see if our cabin is one in the same." Mike stood up, taking the paper he was reading with him.

Peter looked at Matt. "Go get DMV on that car Al saw." Matt sat, staring at the papers in front of him. Peter cleared his throat and croaked, "Now!"

Matt awkwardly got up and left the room.

Half an hour later, Matt was in the room waiting for someone to look up the license plate, and he and Peter were still combing over the extensive file on Jeremy Solento. Mike came bursting through the door. "Our crime scene used to be rented out before the owner died and it became abandoned. One of the most frequent renters was an Edgar and Helene Solento, and yes, they are Jeremy's parents."

"Inspector, about that car you had me look up. License WRO 916 is a 1966 Chrysler Newport, registered to a Jeremy Solento of 2157 Palou Ave," a policewoman informed Matt as she popped her head in the door.

"What color is that Chrysler?" he asked.

She looked down at the card in her hand. "Blue."

"Thanks, Dottie," Matt said to the lady as she left. "Well, I'd say that's some pretty good evidence there. What do you say we get ourselves a warrant and give this man a visit?" Peter suggested.

* * *

**Chapter 18**

* * *

Pointing towards the back of the apartment building in a silent order to cover the back, Peter waited until Matt jogged around the corner of the building before he and Mike moved stealthily towards the faded apartment door. Drawing their weapons, each took up a position on either side of the door. They waited a few more seconds to allow Matt to get into position. Peter held up three fingers and silently counted down before he turned and violently kicked open the flimsy door, yelling 'Police' as he went in low and Mike went in high, their guns ready for any potential trouble.

Encountering no one in the living room, they quickly searched the tiny apartment for their suspect.

"Looks like he hasn't been home for a few days," Matt announced as he entered the apartment and dropped several letters and unread newspapers onto the table as Mike and Peter re-hostered their guns and turned towards him. "Found these overflowing in his mailbox."

Picking up one of the newspapers, Peter reading the date printed on it, "He's been gone for at least four days."

"A week to be precise."

The Homicide officer turned to find a middle-aged man standing in the doorway watching them.

"Who are you?" Peter demanded.

"Isn't that what I am supposed to be asking you?" The man answered as he looked at the remains of the shattered door, "After all, you did just kick down on of the doors to one of my apartments. But I am guessing you are cops or something."

Pulling out his badge, Peter held it up for the man to see as he introduced himself, "Captain Whelan, Bayview Homicide, "Before he tilted his head towards Matt and Mike, "and this is Inspector Eppings and Lieutenant Stone."

"Yep, knew you had to be some sort cops," the man sighed as he picked up several pieces of wood from the splintered door "Damn it, I told Solento I wanted no trouble from the cops when he moved in! But what can you expect from an old jail bird like him? Should have kicked him out months ago." Straightening up, he stepped inside of the apartment and glanced around as he added distractedly, "I'm Selwyn Thompson. Owner, security and all-around maintenance man of these apartments," Turning back to look at the three police officers watching him he demanded, "Just what has Solento been up to now?"

"We would just like to have a few words with him about a case we are currently investigating."

"Just a few words with him, hey. That's why you ruined my door, which I expect the Bayview police department to pay for.' the apartment owner snorted, before he added, "Well, he ain't here as you can see. He's probably up at that cabin that he used to live in when he was a kid. He goes there for a couple of days every couple of months but lately he's been going there more often."

"And you think he's there now?" Mike asked.

"Well he ain't here, as you can see," Selwyn waved his hands around, "and that's the only other place that he hangs out. He doesn't tend to be made to feel welcome anywhere else."

"If he comes back…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know the drill, I have to ring ya." Selwyn muttered as he began to go through the mail on the table as the three homicide detectives turned and headed towards the door. Looking up as the three inspectors hurried out of the door, he yelled, "Hey and don't forget that you cops are paying for the damage to the door.

Chapter 22Coasting the LTD to a gentle stop behind the blue Chrysler that was parked haphazardly across the dirt road in front of them, Mike, Matt and Peter drew their guns as they exited the police car and cautiously moved towards the abandoned car. Glancing into the front of the car through the open passenger door, Mike announced softly, "He's definitely our guy." As he nodded towards a distinctive woman's pink oversized shoulder bag, that matched the shoulder bag that Sammi Blair had taken to the library with her before she disappeared, on the floor of the car, a text book with her name written on the front cover, had slipped partway out.

Peering over Mike's shoulder, Peter nodded, "So Simms was telling the truth when he said he saw Solento grab the girl."

Looking back at Peter, Mike frowned, 'I thought Matt said he was one of your most reliable snitches, did you think he could have been lying?"

"One of Matt's reliable snitches," Peter corrected Mike softly before he added, "he's always has given Matt good solid info but I guess I just don't trust him as much as Matt does."

"Do you think he could be involved?"

"No." Peter answered without hesitation, "He's a small-time dope dealer, no history of violence, and this is way out of his league. And he was in jail for possession when two of the girls disappeared. " He shrugged before he admitted, "I checked when he first came forward about seeing the abduction."

"Pete, Mike, over here."

Turning away from the open door, Mike and Peter hurried to the other side of the car where Matt was kneeling on one knee in the dust, studying something on the edge of the road.

Looking up as the two men reached him, he pointed to a blue woman's sneaker half hidden in the underbrush that lined the edge of the road. "Looks like one of Sammi's shoes."

Mike nodded as Matt slowly rose to his feet and looked at the trampled underbrush that led to the cabin hidden by the trees just below where they were standing, "He's taken her down to the cabin."

"Do you think she still could be alive?" Matt asked as he began to move towards the newly broken trail the led down the steep slope.

"If she is, you will get her killed if you go charging in like a wounded bull." Peter warned the young Homicide inspector as he grabbed his arm, stopping him. He waited until Matt looked at him and he was certain he had his inspector's full attention before he instructed. "We move in quietly, try and see what is happening in that cabin before we go in, understood?"

"Understood." Matt nodded, as he began following Peter and Mike as they headed down the rough trail to the small cabin.

XXXX

Crouching in the thick undergrowth at the edge of the clearing that surrounded the cabin, the three men drew their guns as they watched the cabin for any indication that Solento might have seen their approach. A woman's terrified screams to "Please stop!" and the heartbreaking pleas as she called for her mother to help her came from within the cabin echoed out across the small clearing. Matt glanced at his captain silently asking if they could move in.

Peter nodded, holding his hand up for a moment to wait before he pointed towards the closed cabin door. He pointed first to Matt, then himself and finally Mike.

Both men nodded their understanding of the unspoken command before the three of them ran stealthily across the clearing to the front door. Standing on one side of the door, Peter looked across at Mike standing on the other side of the door, who nodded his readiness, as another terrified and pain filled scream from within the cabin echoed through the clearing before they heard a male voice demand, "Shut up, Bitch!"

The petrified scream ended in a strange loud gurgling noise as Peter looked at Matt and ordered, "Now!"

Raising his foot, Matt violently kicked open the front door, yelling "Police!" as he entered the cabin, his gun pointed at the man leaning over a body on the bed, with Mike and Peter rushing in after him.

Straightening up, Solento turned with a bloody knife still in his hand as he looked in surprise at the three armed men who had just burst through the front door,

"Put the weapon down!" Matt yelled. "And move away from the bed!"

"What the hell? What are you doing…" Solento growled in confusion as he began to move towards Matt, the knife still clutched firmly in his raised hand.

"I said put the weapon down!"

"Go to hell!" the enraged man yelled as he charged at Matt.

Two loud shots reverberated around the small room as Solento was flung back by the impact of the bullets before he fell backwards across the naked, bloody body of the young girl who was tied to the bed, as the knife slipped from his hand, falling noisily onto the floor.

Still holding his gun ready to fire again in case of any more trouble, Matt allowed a small sigh of relief to slip from his lips as Peter and Mike moved swiftly past him to the two bodies on the bed.

Reaching the bed, Peter quickly kicked the knife away before he placed his fingers against Solento's neck and shook his head. "He's dead." He announced softly as he grabbed Solento's shirt, pulling his body off the girl before allowing it to drop heavily onto the floor.

Matt felt his hand tremble as he re-holstered his gun and asked, "How's the girl?"

Pressing his fingers against Sammi's neck, Mike swallowed hard and shook his head, blinking back the tears that threatened to fall, "We're too late."

"Damn it!" Peter growled as he turned and kicked a small stool that was near the bed hard into the wall, smashing it. "Damn it!" he swore again.

* * *

**Chapter 19**

* * *

Steve pulled his rental car up to a small blue cottage with white trim. It was surrounded by flowers and bushes, all of which were pruned immaculately. Behind it was a cliff that overlooked the Atlantic Ocean, which he could hear clearly from his car. The scene looked just like Steve imagined a cottage on the northeast coast would look like. He looked at the address, which was displayed by the front door in white wooden letters. Looking down at the number written on the paper Julie's mother had given him, he noticed it and the number on the cottage matched, so he put the paper back in his coat pocket and got out of the car.

As he slowly approached the front door, he looked around for signs of life, seeing none except in the foliage. He lightly knocked on the door. The last thing he wanted to do to a runaway victim is scare her immediately. There was no answer, so he knocked a bit more forcefully. There was still nothing, so he shouted through the door instead. "Miss Wellings? My name is Steve Keller. I'm from San Francisco. I was hoping we could talk."

Again there was a pause, but this time Steve could hear movement on the other side. "I don't know anyone in San Francisco," came from behind the baby blue door.

"You're right, you don't know me. But I think you have some information that could help me put your attacker in prison." He wondered if that was the right thing to say.

After a pause, Julie asked through the door, "You're a cop?" She sounded none too pleased.

"I am."

"How did you find me?! No one was supposed to find me!"

"Your...your mother gave me your address. After I explained the situation to her, she told me where I could find you."

Steve jolted as something hard hit the inside of the door.

"You lie! My mother would never do that to me! Go away!"

"Ju...Julie? Your mother wrote down your address on a piece of paper for me. You'd recognize her handwriting, right? I can show you the paper." He heard nothing, but he got the paper out of his pocket anyway, just in case he had actually gotten through to her. Suddenly the door opened a minute crack, enough to slip a paper through. Steve did and quickly pulled his fingers back as Julie slammed the door shut. Had he been a millisecond slower, he would have lost a finger.

A moment later, the door opened a bit wider. Steve could see she had three safety chains in place. Half of Julie's face peeked around the door. He couldn't see much, but the woman was wearing sunglasses and what looked like a headscarf. "Alright, so maybe you're telling the truth. But why? Why me?"

Steve got into his back pocket and pulled out his badge. Instead of just showing it to her, he slipped it through the door for Julie to inspect more closely. "I'm a homicide inspector with the San Francisco Police...and I believe the man who attacked you killed my fiancée."

Even under the dark shades, Steve could see her look up at him in shock. She handed him back his badge and ID after a thorough inspection. "You're telling me the truth?" she whispered.

"Honest to God."

"Why do you need to talk to me though? I gave the police a statement back then."

Steve nodded. "I know, but I also think you were afraid of someone. See, I suspect someone, but no one believes me because they all think he's a good guy. I guess I wanted to see if this good guy was the one your neighbors heard you arguing with before you disappeared."

She only stared at him.

"I know it probably sounds crazy, but I suppose I'm desperate. Will you just hear me out before you slam the door in my face again?"

Julie closed the door and Steve heard her unlatching the chains.

She then opened the door again and he saw he was right about the headscarf. He guessed she was hiding some scars from her ordeal.

Following the woman inside, Steve sat down on a loveseat across from her. She slowly sat and looked at her guest. "Tell me how it happened," she said softly.

"How what happened?"

"Your fiancée, how she died. Was it like...like my kidnapping?" The small girl choked on her words, the memories flooding back quickly.

Steve hesitated, but soon told her what they knew about Dianne's ordeal, which mirrored Julie's.

During the tale, Julie leaned back in her chair, her arms folded tightly over her chest. He hated to keep going into detail since she looked so tortured, but she kept insisting.

The room fell silent, its two occupants trying not to surrender to their emotions. Eventually Julie thanked Steve for telling her about Dianne. It made her realize that the woman had indeed been the victim of the same man. They'd been taken to the same cabin, tortured in the same way.

"I know this is a lot for me to ask," Steve said, sniffing, "but could you tell me about the man who did that to you?" He raised a finger and pointed in the direction of her face.

"It isn't as hard as you might think. I relive it every day, every time I look in the mirror. They made sure I would never forget them."

Steve narrowed his gaze. "Did you say they?"

She nodded. "There were two of them. The guy who kidnapped and mutilated me...and his clean up man," she said in clear disdain.

"Clean up man? What do you mean by that?"

"He cleans up the messes, makes sure no evidence is left behind, throws the dogs off the scent, ya know? He also takes his turn when his friend is too tired to go on."

Steve felt the contents of his stomach rise up his throat. The thought of two men torturing his sweet Dianne made him sick, and the fact that he did not realize there were two men involved infuriated him.

"You know why I ran?" she asked him.

Realizing he'd gotten lost in his thoughts, he shook his head and grunted, "Huh?"

"Why I ran from San Francisco."

"I assume that, well, at least one of your attackers threatened you if you talked.

She slowly nodded. "But that wasn't the part that scared me the worst. What scared me was that no one would have ever believed me anyway. I could have sworn on a stack of Bibles that reached to Heaven, but they'd all just look at me and say, "A cop? Really, Julie? A cop wouldn't do that! Especially not the cop investigating your case."

Steve felt his heart stop. He felt somewhat vindicated, yet it made him feel that much worse.

"He came to my apartment that night, the one you said the Truman's told you about, and basically told me he was invincible. He could kidnap and rape any woman in the city he wanted because he was a Homicide inspector, and no one would ever suspect him. They'd just think I was so traumatized that I was delirious." She looked off out the window. "The looks I kept getting, and the doubts about my sanity...I wished I had died. The only people who believed me were my parents. I left because if I hadn't...the strain would have killed me." Looking back at Steve, she saw something different in his expression. "You've met him, haven't you? Inspector Eppings? I can tell you have. See, no one believed you either." She stood up and approached Steve, setting her hand gently on his shoulder. "And they won't believe you now either."

XXXXXX

Pulling his typed report from the typewriter, Mike yawned as he scrawled his signature at the bottom of each page, before picking it up and re-reading what he had written about the afternoon's failed rescue of Sammi Blair and the subsequent death of the serial killer who had grabbed her.

"Almost finished, Mike?" Jeannie asked, "I have some tuna casserole ready to go in the oven."

Looking up he smiled at Jeannie, relieved that they had been able to remove a monster like Solento off the streets so no more young women would ever have to endure the horror and fear as Solento's victims had endured. His heart skipped a beat, as he looked up at his daughter, for the first time really noticing just what Steve had warned him, Jeannie really did match, not Matt's as Steve had tried to convince him, but the real monster's Solento's victims. He felt a pang of guilt over the arguments he had had with Steve over this case, he was aware of Steve's pain but as a cop and Steve's partner, he could not let Steve's anguish interfere with getting a killer, Steve's fiancée's killer, off the street. Promising himself when Steve returned they would talk about what happened between them, Mike forced his guilt down as he smiled at his daughter and answered, "Not just yet, Sweetheart, I…" Glancing at the two Bayview homicide officers sitting around the desk signing their own reports, he corrected himself, "we… have to attend a press conference about the case."

"You and Pete were ordered to attend the press conference and I've just finished all my paperwork." Matt grinned as he passed his report to his captain before he stood up and turned to Jeannie, offering her his arm as he smiled, "And I love tuna casserole. Umm, that's if you don't want to invite someone else, if not can I can invite myself to dinner?"

Jeannie giggled, slipping her arm through Matt's offered one as she glanced out of Mike's office at the man she loved who was busy filling in his own paperwork before she looked back at her father, "Well it looks like everyone here is too busy to have dinner with me, so yes please, Matt, I would love you to join me for dinner."

xxxxx

Though it took a lot of time, several pleas, and many tissues, Steve managed to convince Julie to accompany him back to San Francisco. Ultimately, she felt like she survived so that other women wouldn't have to die at the hands of Matt and Jeremy. Plus, she felt safer now that someone with power actually believed her. The flight was quiet for both. Neither had slept much the night before, and both were apprehensive about what they'd encounter once they landed. Steve was afraid there had been another victim in his absence and that Matt was still pulling the wool over Mike's eyes.

Julie feared any retribution Matt or Jeremy still wished to inflict upon her. They landed without any problems and Steve quickly retrieved his car from long-term parking, driving him and Julie straight to the station. On the way, he noticed his passenger looking out the windows in awe at the city she had left behind. "Does it look any different?" Steve asked, tired of the quiet.

"A little...but not as much as I expected. Feels like I've been gone longer than I have." She turned in his direction. "How many are there?"

"How many what?"

"How many victims? How many women did I let die by running?"

Steve came to a stop at a light and looked over at her. She was looking at her lap and twisting the ends of her headscarf in her hands. He swore he also saw tears underneath her shades. "Now you stop thinking like that!" Steve gently scolded. "You did not let anyone die! You were not the one who dragged them to that cabin and raped them. You didn't put your hands around their throats. Matt Eppings and his partner are the only two responsible for that!"

"But maybe if I had said something…"

"You said yourself no one would have believed you...and I believe that. I can tell this guy has a lot of people fooled, and I have no doubt that he would have turned on the charm and made you look like a total liar."

Julie took a deep breath and looked back up at Steve. "So, you don't blame me for Dianne's death?"

Steve reached over and placed his hands on top of hers, "Not for a second. I completely understand why you ran. Really. The only people I blame for what happened to Dianne are Matt and his partner. And after today...they'll get what's coming to them."

* * *

**Chapter 20**

* * *

Steve parked his car at the station and walked Julie in through a back door. As the two got to the elevators to go upstairs to Homicide, they ran into Lee, who was coming out of one of the cars.

"I didn't expect to see you so soon," Lee said, sounding like he was out of breath.

"Yeah, well...are you okay? You look like hell," Steve told his co-worker.

"It's been...been bad, Steve. Real bad. Jeannie is missing." Steve stared at him, shocked, as he continued. "She went home last night with Matt and had dinner with him because everyone else was too busy wrapping up the investigation."

"Dianne's investigation?"

Lee nodded. "Matt shot the guy dead. Caught him in the middle of attacking another girl."

Julie wrapped her arms around herself like she was freezing. "He shot his partner," she whispered."

After Mike got done with his press conference, he and I headed to his house thinking maybe Jeannie still had some dinner left over. But she wasn't there. He wasn't there. Mike hasn't heard from her or seen her since."

Julie looked at Steve and put her hand around his arm. "Oh God," was all she could say.

"Jeannie and Matt...they were at her house last night? Alone?!"

Lee nodded. "Mike's been trying to find Matt all morning to see what he knows, but he seems to have disappeared as well. I mean...what the hell could have happened?"

"How could you have let this happen?!" Steve yelled at the unsuspecting inspector. "How could you guys have let her go anywhere alone with that monster?"

Lee backed up a step. "Let her...what the hell are you talking about, Steve? She was perfectly fine with Matt. We already caught the killer…"

"You caught one killer. They were a pair! Don't believe me? Ask her," he growled, pointing at Julie. "Julie, this is Inspector Lessing. Lee, this is Julie Wellings, one of their victims. And if we don't hurry, we'll be adding Jeannie Stone to that list."

"Matt ... Matt's involved?" Lee asked, his voice trembling.

Julie nodded and turned to Steve. "You better get out there. There's only one place he'd ever go."

Steve nodded and started for the door. "Lee, take Julie upstairs and make sure she's comfortable. Tell Mike I'm heading out to the cabin!" With that, he sprinted out the door.

XXXXX

Parking the car behind the beige LTD that was parked in the middle of the road, Steve opened his car door and quietly exited the vehicle, drawing his gun as he slowly approached the abandoned car. A quick glance within, told him what he already knew, the car was empty. He turned and hurried around the car towards the wooded edge of the road towards the now well worn, rugged trail that led down the rough hillside to the cabin hidden below.

"Inspectors 8-1. Come in. Inspector 8-1 please respond."

He hesitated a moment as he heard the soft radio call from his car but a muted scream from the cabin below made him turn and hurry down the rough trail, slipping and sliding on the damp leaves and muddy ground as he tried to keep his balance until he reached the edge of the clearing.

"Oh God, someone help me! ... NO! Please, no!" Jeannie's terrified scream echoed through the clearing and any thoughts of waiting for back up or approaching the cabin cautiously was forgotten as Steve ran across the clearing and kicked the already damaged cabin door open. His anger and hatred for the man who had murdered Dianne threatened to boil over as he saw Eppings straddled across Jeannie on the bed, holding her down with one hand as he struck her face hard with the other. "Get away from her Eppings!" he demanded as he aimed his gun at the Bayview homicide inspector.

If Matt was surprised or worried about the interruption, he showed no fear as he struck Jeannie hard again before he slowly turned to face Steve, "And who's going to make me? You?"

"I said get away from her, Eppings." Steve warned softly as he took a step forward.

"Or what, you are going to shoot me?" Matt asked as he began to climb off Jeannie, who was tied to the bed, "So you can protect her the way you protected your fiancée? What was her name? Dianne… that was her name, wasn't it?" he grinned as he got off the bed and turned to face Steve, before adding cockily, "But that's right, you didn't protect her, did you Steve?"

"I said move away from her!" Steve ordered again softly, his finger tightening on the trigger.

"Ahh sweet, delicious Dianne, she was real fighter, but Solento and I had so much fun with her. Did you know even after she escaped and we caught her down on the bank, she still found the strength to try and fight us as she screamed for you to come and save her bur she died knowing that you never came? Knowing that you never even noticed or cared that she was missing." Matt said softly, as he stepped towards Steve, as he reached behind his back as he continued to mock the young San Francisco homicide inspector, "And now you are going to fail your partner and you are going to fail Jeannie."

"Steve, watch out!"

Steve saw the gun in Matt's hand only a heartbeat before he heard the gunshot and felt the bullet as it tore through his flesh as he instinctively pulled the trigger of his own weapon. Knocked to the floor by the impact of the bullet, he could hear Jeannie's terrified screams as he watched Matt stagger back a step or two before collapsing onto the floor less than six feet away from him. Slowly forcing himself to his feet, he stumbled across to where Matt laid, and kicked the gun away from Matt's potential reach before he knelt down and awkwardly pressed his left fingers against Matt's throat. He felt no satisfaction when he did not feel a pulse.

"S…Steve?"

Looking across at Jeannie's bruised and tear stained face, he rose unsteadily to his feet and stumbled across to the bed, "He's dead." He told her softly as he struggled to loosen the ropes that bound her to the bed with his left hand, as he reassured her as the rope dropped away, freeing her hands,

"You're safe, he can't hurt anyone else again."

Sitting up, Jeannie fell into Steve's comforting embrace as she sobbed, "Oh Steve, I thought he was going to kill me."

XXXXX

The heavy LTD had barely slid to a stop behind Steve's car before Mike and Lee jumped out of the car and raced to the trail that led down to the cabin before slipping and sliding down the rough track. Two gunshots and a woman's petrified screams reverberated around them as they reached the small clearing, and unholstering their guns, they sprinted towards the open front door.

They stopped in surprise as Jeannie limped out of the door, supporting Steve who was bleeding heavily from a gunshot wound in the top of his right arm.

"Jeannie, Steve!" Mike breathed in relief as he hurried towards them.

"Mike!" Jeannie gasped as she released her arm around Steve's waist and ran across to her father, hugging him tightly as he held tight and kissed her on the head.

Pulling free of her father's embrace, Jeannie turned and ran to Lee, "Lee," she whispered tearfully as he drew her into his arms and held her tightly. "Ohh Lee."

"Shh sweetie, I'm here, I'm here. You're safe, I'm not going to let anyone ever hurt you again, I promise." he murmured as he kissed her face, "I love you!"

Leaning against the cabin's wall, Steve slowly slid to the ground as Mike reached him. "Epping's dead." he said tiredly as Mike knelt down beside him.

"Thank you, Steve," Mike whispered, ignoring the tears that rolled down his face as he gently squeezed his partner's shoulder, "Thank you for saving Jeannie's life. I should have listened to you."

* * *

**Chapter 21**

* * *

Resting back against the pillows that had been strategically placed behind him, Steve held his injured arm as he stared out of his hospital window, watching the setting sun as it slowly slipped beneath the horizon, painting the clouds in light hues of red, gold and purple as it faded away. The encroaching darkness mirrored his thoughts, in the last few days, he had lost everything, Dianne, probably his career and his friendship with Mike.

Swallowing hard, he blinked away the tears that threaten to fall, saving Jeannie from the horror Dianne and the other young women had endured and finding the man who was responsible had been worth it.

His depressing thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock on his hospital door and he turned in disinterest to see who his visitor was.

"Hey Buddy Boy, the doctor said that you might be up for a visit." Mike smiled nervously as he entered the room and slowly approached the bed, carrying a paper sack and two take away cups of coffee. Placing them down on the rolling bedside table, he began to unpack the bag, placing a plastic container of what Steve immediately recognized as Mike's tune casserole onto the table, followed by a paper plate, serviette, a fork and a spoon. "I thought I would sneak you in some of my homemade tuna casserole and some decent coffee. The doctor said you haven't got much of an appetite and I thought maybe this will tempt you more than the stuff they call food they served you for dinner."

Opening the container of food, Mike served it out onto the plate as he continued to talk, "I spoke to the doctor and he said you're looking good for a full recovery." He placed the plate of casserole in front of Steve and handed him a fork, "He says a few weeks rest and some physio therapy and you will be as good as new." Nodding towards the untouched plate, he ordered gently, "Eat, I promise it's not bad, at least not as bad as the hospital food."

Steve gave the man half a smile. "Thanks," he said.

Mike sat down on a chair that was in the corner, taking a cup of coffee with him. "How're you feeling?"

"As good as anyone who was shot feels I suppose." He picked up the fork and poked at the casserole. Mike was right - it did smell better, but his appetite was gone.

Mike sat quietly while Steve attempted to swallow the food. He then jokingly said, "I hope that's not a critique on my cooking."

Steve gingerly shook his head. "I just don't feel like eating, that's all."

Mike took a deep breath. He'd been thinking about apologizing all the way to the hospital, but he never figured out how to approach the subject. Was Steve angry, sad? Would he even listen to an apology? Mike felt like what he did - not believing Steve or even entertaining his ideas - went against not only everything he stood for, but what his friendship with Steve stood for. He wouldn't blame Steve one bit if he never wanted to speak to him again.

Deciding the best way to approach the sensitive subject was just to say it, Mike cleared his throat and said, "Look, Steve...I know this has been the worst week of your life, but I didn't make it any better by the way I acted."

Steve figured out where this was going, and while it made him happy that he indeed was not losing his best friend, he still didn't feel like hearing an apology when he was the one who needed to apologize.

"Mike…" he tried interrupting, but the man was not listening. "I should have listened to your instincts instead of writing them off as the thoughts of a grief-stricken man…" "Mike…"

"Now, Buddy Boy, let me finish. You have never gone after a trail of clues that led you nowhere, so I should have believed you when you suspected Matt. I should have believed you! Instead, I almost got my only child killed." He choked back a few tears, preventing him from going on

"Mike," Steve said quietly, "You don't owe me an apology. Honest. If I had been in your shoes, I might not have believed me either. I'm just glad I got back here in time." He too took a deep breath and fought back tears. "And I'm...I'm just glad you're not mad at me."

Mike looked up in surprise. "Mad at you? Why on earth would I be mad at you?"

Steve looked down at his lap. "I know that I went a little crazy...and I did things against your wishes, but…"

"But what?"

"But I have lost everything! I lost the only woman I have ever loved, I probably lost my job...and then I thought I lost my best friend."

Mike stood up and went to Steve's bedside. He took his hand and squeezed it tightly. "That will never happen. I don't care how crazy you get. I will always be your friend. Trust me...I know what you're going through." He swallowed hard, all the sad memories flooding back into his head. "When I lost Helen, my whole world fell apart. I felt like I had nothing left, like my whole existence was useless. Jeannie was the only thing that kept me going."

Steve nodded knowingly but asked, "But did you go accusing people of killing her, or running after suspects on your own?"

"No, but then the opportunity to arise. I just almost gave up my entire career though. See, at the stage in the grieving process, you don't think straight. You just want the pain to go away, and sometimes you do stupid things to accomplish that. It just so happened that your stupid acts got Dianne's killer off the streets, and for that we're all grateful. You got justice for Dianne and gave me another chance with my daughter. And fortunately Matt was a bad shot, so I also have another chance with you."

"Another chance with me?"

"If you'd have died…" Mike began choking up again. "...if he'd have shot you fatally, it would have been my fault."

"Oh now, Mike…"

"No, it would have been. If I'd have listened to you about Matt, I might have stopped him before he took Jeannie and you had to come to the rescue."

"Might have, Mike. You said you might have. You don't know that for sure."

Mike smiled. "No, I guess I don't. I should just be glad that we all came out of this alive, since we were so close to a killer."

"Yeah...all of us." Steve turned and stared out the window again. Mike may have felt a bit of relief, but Steve was still facing an empty life without his fiancee. He had no idea how to go one...or if he even wanted to. "How did you do it?" he asked Mike.

"Do what?"

"Move on from Helen. Feel like life is worth living again."

"Oh, Buddy Boy...truth is, you never move on. You just get used to a new reality. She'll always be in your heart and a part of your life, you just adapt to her not being around. It's not an overnight thing. But having people to lean on helps."

At that moment, the door opened, and two familiar faces entered. "Well, speak of the devil," Mike said, seeing his daughter and surprise fiancee come in the room hesitantly. Jeannie gave them both a little wave and Lee smiled apprehensively as they walked further into the room Jeannie approached Steve's bed. "How do you feel?"

"Better," he nodded. "How 'bout you?"

"Thankful." She leaned over and cautiously embraced him. "Thank you so much."

Jeannie was, like Steve and Mike had been earlier, choking back tears, so instead of fighting the constant apologizing, Steve simply said, "You're welcome."

Despite everything that had happened, what Mike was most curious about was his daughter and her mystery boyfriend. "So, Jeannie...since you're feeling alright now, is there anything you might want to tell me?" He gave his daughter a small grin.

Jeannie's eyes widened, and she shot looks from Lee to Steve. "Tell? About what?" she asked nervously.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe that little after-rescue scene...or that rock on your finger? Pick that up in a box of Cracker Jack?"

Steve rolled his eyes.

Jeannie sat on the edge of Steve's hospital bed next to her father. She entwined her arm in his and gave him an innocent look. "Um, Daddy...I have to tell you something. You know Lee, right?"

Steve snickered.

Mike nodded. "Oh yeah, we've met before."

"Well...Lee and I were kind of seeing each other."

"Kind of?" Mike asked.

"Yeah, yeah...and well, he asked me to marry him the other night...and I kind of said yes." She looked at her father. He was registering very little reaction to the news, making Jeannie worry. "Uh...did you hear me, Mike?"

Steve jumped in. "Come on, Mike. Give the girl a break. They make a good couple."

"Wait a minute, Buddy Boy, you knew?"

"About them dating, yeah," Steve grinned as he stared at the diamond ring on Jeannie's hand. "We went out on a couple of double dates together, but I didn't know Lee had worked up the courage to ask Jeannie to marry him yet." Looking up at Lee, his grin grew wider, "You're a braver man than I am, my man, especially knowing Mike's rules about Jeannie dating a cop. You not only asked her out but you asked her to marry you." Glancing across at Mike before looking back at Lee, he laughed, "Hope your life insurance is up to date."

"I hope so too, Man," Lee answered.

"Ohhh, would you all stop it?" Mike turned to his daughter. "I wish you would have told me this sooner! Why didn't you?"

The two lovebirds shrugged.

"We weren't too sure how you'd feel," Jeannie admitted.

"How do you feel?" Mike looked at his daughter then at his future son-in-law. "If you two are happy, then I'm happy. Sweetheart, all I've wanted for you is to find someone who made you as happy as your mother made me. True, I'm not sold on you dating a cop…"

"But if it was fine enough for Mom, it's fine enough for me!" Jeannie said, finishing his sentence.

Mike grinned and nodded before he reached for Lee's hand, "I guess the only thing left to say is welcome to the family."

Growing more serious, and although he was genuinely happy for Jeannie and Lee, Steve desperately found himself wanting to change the subject as he felt his own heart ache at how his own dreams of love and marriage had ended so brutally. Clearing his throat, he looked at Mike and asked, "So the case is closed now?"

Mike nodded, "Yep, all that's left is the paperwork. One of the guys from I.A will take your statement about Eppings shooting tomorrow but it's just a formality. They are already happy that it was a justified shooting."

Steve shook his head, "Eppings was a cop and from everything I was told, a good cop. I just don't understand how a cop can turn into a serial killer."

Mike sighed, "I haven't got an answer for you, Steve. I really wish I did. Eppings first came into contact with Solento shortly after Solento was released on parole, their paths crossed when Matt was investigating the rape and murder of a young girl found strangled in a vacant lot in the Bayview district. Because of Solento's previous convictions of rape, Matt checked him out and ruled him out as a suspect."

"Was he involved?"

"I don't think so," Mike answered, shaking his head. "I don't know why he decided to join up with Solento but we suspect that he joined in on Solento's killing spree shortly after meeting him. We believe the girl strangled in the vacant lot was Solento's first murder, and the subsequent kidnappings and murders were carried out by both of them, with Eppings ensuring any evidence linking them to the case was lost or contaminated. That is until they made their first mistake, and Julie Wellings escaped. He must have realized they had made their second big mistake by kidnapping and murdering Dianne. When her body turned up, it turned out that she was not just another girl they had snatched off the street, but the fiancée of a cop, and not just any cop but a Homicide inspector. Matt must have discovered that we had traced Dianne's body back to the cabin and that we had unknowingly found evidence there and on Dianne's rape test that could potentially link him to the murder. That's when he convinced his Lieutenant to allow him to join forces with us on the case, he needed to know what we knew and if we looked like we were getting to close to the truth, he wanted to be able steer us off in a different direction."

"And my behavior helped him do that."

"You were the reason for his undoing, Buddy Boy," Mike corrected Steve firmly, "What he didn't take into consideration was your determination to find and bring to justice the man responsible for Dianne's death. He had no control or influence over what you were doing and his attempts to stop you failed. On Thursday, we think he realized the net was closing around him after he found out that you had been making enquiries about him. He tried to make me rein you in by threatening to make an official complaint against you if you continued to pursue the investigation on your own. I think he was probably worried that you would manage to find the only victim who managed to escape and who could tell us that there were two killers and identify him."

"Julie." Steve whispered as he looked across at Mike and Mike nodded. Running his uninjured hand over his hair, Steve sighed before speaking again, "Julie recognized him as one of her kidnappers when he went to the hospital the night she was found to interview her but she was too traumatized and frightened to tell anyone. And to make certain she did not talk, he went around to her apartment after she was released from the hospital and threatened to kill not only her but her parents as well if she ever told anyone that he was involved."

"That's why she ran." Lee breathed as he wrapped his arm tighter around Jeannie's shoulders, aware of how close Julie's, Dianne's and the other women's fates at the hands of Solento and Eppings hand almost became her fate. He owed Steve so much.

Mike nodded, "He must have decided to get rid of everyone who could link him to the kidnappings and murders."

"So he decided to set his partner up." Lee frowned.

'"He knew we were looking for just one killer, and what a better way to get rid of Solento then to set him up. So he returned to Bayview under the pretence that he had to report to his Lieutenant. Instead he convinced Solento to kidnap another girl and take her back to the cabin. He then arranged for one of his snitches to witness his partner committing the kidnapping. After the funeral, he made sure that I was involved in the interview with the snitch, he knew after the interview that we would discover the trail of evidence that would lead us directly to Solento and the girl at the cabin.

"So he deliberately murdered Solento while supposedly trying to make the arrest." Lee shook his head in disgust, "And we were his witnesses, case solved."

"And to make it look convincing he probably told Solento that he would not be back at the cabin until later."

"So when we raided the cabin…"

"Solento was surprised that Eppings was leading the raid. I don't think he was going to kill Eppings when he turned with the knife, I think he was trying to ask Matt what was going on."

"And Eppings shot him." Jeannie asked, wide eyed.

Mike nodded, "But there were a few loose strings he needed to tie up. He had it all planned down to the last detail, after the shooting, he returned with his Lieutenant to Bayview where he was debriefed and interviewed by I.A. After an initial statement, they allowed him to go home to unwind but instead he decided to try and find Julie before anyone else did and silence her permanently."

"How?" Steve asked softly.

"He discovered where her parents lived and paid them a visit." Mike answered as he looked at his partner. "Her mother was home alone." Steve's face grew pale but he remained silent as Mike continued. "He slapped her around until she finally gave him Julie's address. She told him that you were already on your way to talk to Julie. It was then he knew the game was up and he returned to the bullpen to find out just how much we knew."

"He took a chance."

"But it was a chance he probably knew he had to take. He knew that you probably wouldn't tell us know what you were up to because you had been ordered off the case and he knew if you wanted to convince us…me… of his guilt that would mean you would have to bring Julie to us."

"And he knew that I probably would not be able to get back before this morning with Julie."

Mike nodded, "And then when Jeannie arrived at my office with the offer of a home cooked dinner just as we were wrapping up our part of the case, he must have decided to make the best of the opportunity."

"Jeannie was his type of victim."

"But I don't think that was the reason why he kidnapped her. I think he knew that when you returned and found out Jeannie had gone missing with him, and after talking to Julie, you would head straight to the cabin to try and rescue her. He was setting you up."

"But how did he know that I would go alone?"

"He knew that to convince me that he had taken Jeannie back to the cabin and he was involved in the other murders, you would need Julie to tell me her story or else I would have thought it was just another one of your wild accusations against him." Mike answered before shaking his head regretfully, "And he was right."

"And I walked right into his trap. When Lee told me Jeannie and Matt was missing, I knew immediately that Matt had taken her back to the cabin and we were running out of time. I also knew after everything that happened that no one would believe me without talking to Julie first."

"Then why didn't you take me with you to back you up? Why did you insist that I escort Julie up to Mike?" Lee frowned, "There were plenty of other officers around who could have taken her up to Mike's office. I…"

"I knew what Eppings was capable of and I knew things between you and Jeannie was getting serious, that you were talking about marriage." Steve answered, cutting off Lee's question as he turned his head and began to stare out the dark window, blinking back the tears as he softly admitted, "I…I didn't want to take the risk that yours or Mike's last image of Jeannie was anything like the last time I saw Dianne."

"Ohh Steve." Jeannie whispered as she reached for his hand and gave it a tight squeeze.

Looking back at Jeannie's bruised face, Steve swallowed hard as the tears trickled down his face. "I'm so sorry, Jeannie, I knew that Matt was a threat to you and I failed to protect you, just like I failed Dianne."

"Don't you dare even think that Steve, you didn't fail me, you saved my life." Jeannie scorned him gently as she leaned down and kissed him on the cheek, "He was going to kill me."

"But he…"

"No, no he didn't." Jeannie rushed to reassure him, "He was angry and he hit me but rape wasn't why he kidnapped me. He wanted to hurt you, he planned to set you up."

"Jeannie told us how he taunted you, tried to get you to shoot him while he was unarmed. " Mike cut in, waiting until he had Steve's full attention before continuing, "He wanted to destroy you, destroy your career, your friendships and everything you had left, for exposing him. But when you wouldn't, he must have decided that suicide by cop was much more preferable than spending the rest of his life in jail. He knew as an ex-cop, his life in prison would not be a pleasant or a long one and he must have believed no matter what ever happened to him, he had destroyed you and that was his revenge."

Steve sighed, "Well I guess he was right about my career." Looking at Mike, he asked, "I guess Rudy will be bringing me up on charges?"

"I managed to keep most of what you did under wraps, and what I couldn't I managed to do some fast talking with Epping's lieutenant, Peter Whelan, and smoothed things out. Rudy doesn't know just how deeply you were involved with the case and what he does know, he has decided to overlook because of the circumstances. But if you ever interfere with a case again and decide to go investigating on your own after I have ordered you not to, I personally will make sure that you will spend the rest of your career walking the beat down on the wharf, got it?"

"Got it, Lieutenant!" Steve smiled as he added softly, "Thank you, Mike."

Mike smiled as he reached across and squeezed Steve's shoulder, "No, Buddy Boy, thank you."

Mike, Jeannie, Lee and Steve looked towards the door as a soft knock preceded it opening before Julie nervously poked her head around the door. She blushed as she looked at Mike, Jeanne and Lee crowded around the bed before she looked at Steve, "Ohh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you had visitors. I heard what happened at the cabin this morning and I thought I would come and see if you are okay. But you have visitors, so I will just come back later."

Smiling as she looked at the nervous young woman standing at the door before looking back at his partner, Jeannie nudged her father before she lightly kicked Lee's leg as she stood up and looked back at Julie. "Please, come in, we are just leaving, aren't we."

Glancing at Jeannie. Mike nodded. "Ahh, yes we are. Umm, lots of paperwork to do."

"Yeah, paperwork to do." Lee parroted Mike before he looked at Steve and said, "See you later Steve."

Giving Steve a quick kiss on the check, Jeannie smiled. "I will be back tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow, Buddy Boy." Mike grinned as he turned and followed Jeannie and Lee from the room, smiling he turned and watched the door slowly close behind them before he turned and followed Jeannie and Lee to the elevator.

* * *

**Chapter 22**

* * *

**2 weeks later**

Mike took a small sip of champagne, surreptitiously loosening his tie, as he watched Jeannie and Lee as they moved through their guests, momentarily stopping to chat and laugh with friends as they slowly tried to maneuver their way towards him. His breath caught in his throat, he had never seen Jeannie looking happier or more beautiful than she did today. Helen would have been so proud. He swallowed hard and took another sip of his champagne, she reminded him so much of Helen, sometimes it hurt.

"They make a damn good match."

Mike turned as Rudy nodded towards the excited couple.

"They do." Mike happily agreed as he glanced back at Lee and Jeannie.

"I didn't even know they were dating,"

"Either did I." Mike laughed, "Seems us oldies were the last to know!"

"Have they set the date yet?" Rudy asked as he took a glass of champagne from the tray of a passing waitress.

"They have decided Spring break next year."

"How is Steve taking their engagement?" Rudy asked softly, "Especially after the announcement came so close to him losing Dianne."

"He's happy for them both but…"

"It's hard." Rudy finished Mike's sentence as he looked around the room and frowned, "Where is Steve?"

"He's…." Mike paused, as he searched the room for his partner, his heart sinking when he realized Steve was no longer in the room.

"He left a few minutes ago," Lee smiled, before he shook Rudy's hand, thanking him, as Rudy offered his congratulations. Returning his attention back to Mike, Lee added softly, "I think he was feeling a little overwhelmed. Maybe we should have waited a little longer before having the party…"

"Do you know where he was going?" Rudy asked, concerned.

"Uhh, no, he didn't say, and he left before I could ask." Lee answered as Jeannie reached him and he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer.

"I think I know." Mike sighed, only too aware of just how Steve was probably feeling at the moment. The pain of losing Dianne only a few short weeks ago on the night they were engaged and attending this party had to be tearing him apart. Mike swallowed hard, knowing where he needed to be. He had not been there when Steve needed him the most, but this time he was not going to make the same mistake.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Jeannie asked softly.

"No, Sweetheart, you and Lee stay here and enjoy your engagement party," Mike smiled as he looked around the guests before returning his attention back to Jeannie, "I'll be back…"

Jeannie nodded as she kissed her father on the cheek, "I know." She smiled before giving him a light push towards the door, "Go and find Steve, he needs you."

XXXXXX

Steve slowly got out of his car and shut the door. It was abnormally cool for the time of year, so he pulled his overcoat a little tighter around his shoulders to fight off the chilly breeze. The cemetery was devoid of any activity, which pleased him; he didn't want anyone around. He wanted to do his mourning in peace, free for any peering eyes.

He headed over the soft green grass to Dianne's gravesite. The dirt was still piled behind a simple marker that stated her name and birth and death years. The headstone had yet to be placed and the earth had not sunk into the six-foot-deep hole. It was just another reminder that all the events were still fresh in Steve's heart and mind. However, in a way, he was glad there wasn't grass on top of Dianne's casket yet. With only dirt, he felt just a little closer to her.

Sighing, he bent down to the grave marker and ran his fingers over the name Dianne Mackenzie. He had wanted it to say Dianne Keller but thought it best not to bring it up for her parents' sake.

"Hi, Sweetheart," he said to the dirt pile. "How are things up there? Things are terrible down here without you. But we did get the guys who took you from me. I doubt you'll have to worry about running into them. They were to a far warmer place I'm sure."

He took a deep breath. Crying was not on his list of things he wanted to do, but he found the tears hard to fight. "I just came from Jeannie and Lee's engagement party. They're happy, and Mike's happy for them. That's probably the best part. I'm happy for them too...though I doubt I show it. It's just hard, you know? That should be us. We should be the ones having the party, mingling with the guests, wanting desperately to sneak away for some alone time. Instead I had to go there alone and watch them have all the happiness. I know I'm being selfish. And I know you'd be mad at me for it. But it's just not fair. It's not fair what they did to you or to any of the others. No one deserves to die like that!"

He hit the ground with his fist. "I'm sorry. I'm just...lost. I am so lost without you. All I can do is lay awake at night and stare at the ceiling, wondering what you're up to. I hope you miss me...I miss you. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me to be. I should have protected you."

At that thought, he bent his head down and let a few tears fall. Regret was the one thing he knew he would never get over, no matter what happened. "I hope you don't hate me."

"Buddy Boy, she does not hate you," said a voice from behind him.

Steve didn't even turn around. "You can't know that," he answered softly.

"No, but what I do are the facts of the case. She fought like hell to get away, clutching to the necklace you gave her the entire time. If she hated you, she wouldn't have fought so hard to get back to you. That, my boy, is fact. She loved you then, and she still does."

Steve looked up at the mound of dirt once again. "I just can't get past the fact that I had just left her. I should have stayed or something…"

Mike shrugged. "You'll know when you feel it. Until then, just remember all the good times you and Dianne spent together. And spend time with friends! I know it hurts to watch Jeannie and Lee right now, but they know that and want to help you get through it. We all do. If you'll let us."

Steve finally turned to Mike and nodded.

"Why don't we go back to the party? I think that's what Dianne would want."

"You're right."

Mike stood up and started back toward his car.

"Just give me a minute, okay?"

Mike nodded and walked away, patting Steve on the back before he went.

Steve turned back to Dianne's grave and stood up. "Rest in peace, Sweetheart. I'll never stop loving you."

XXXXXX

 _ **'Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a teardrop**_. – Anon'

XXXXXX


End file.
